


This One For them Hood Girls, Good Girls

by Luke_The_Penguin_King95, TheMonsterBookofFanfiction



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band), All Time Low
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-23
Updated: 2015-10-03
Packaged: 2018-04-10 20:59:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 43,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4407440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luke_The_Penguin_King95/pseuds/Luke_The_Penguin_King95, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMonsterBookofFanfiction/pseuds/TheMonsterBookofFanfiction
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>5 Seconds of Summer never had a career after 2014 after the fall out of Michael Clifford and Calum Hood. Now 22 years later the hatred still burns, and MJ Hood, along with her father and brother, is forced to move back to Australia after living in England due to her parents divorce.<br/>While Kelsie Clifford-Irwin was taught to hate the Hood family from her fathers, even though she doesn't know why but just goes with it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1; Part 1- Kelsie

“She looks so tired laying there in her PJ’s and messy hair. And we know now, that she’s up now.”

I hated waking up in the mornings. I’d say it was genetics, but that would be complete bull seeing as Ashton was biologically my father and this was a trait from Michael. Still mornings sucked, but somehow my dads knew how to get me up and of course it involved them singing to me. I wasn’t going to budge that easily. I knew they were doing this because it was my last first day of secondary school.

So I did the only thing I could quickly think of, I threw my pillow at them and shot under the second one to hide. I must have hit Dad because I heard Ashton giggle. A mumbled ‘That does it’ was heard and the soft sound of Dad putting his old guitar in the stand before I had the covers ripped off my bed and I was being flung over his shoulder and watched as my bed started to disappear from my already crappy vision. I was smacking my Dad’s back pleading to be put down as he rounded the stairs and started to descend; Father following behind.

“DAD PUT ME DOWN! I’M UP, I’M UP! FATHER MAKE DAD PUT ME DOWN!”

As a response, I get thrown on the couch. I wait for the stars to stop spinning and notice a present on the coffee table. I look over and see my dads staring at me expectantly. I reach for the present hesitantly and notice it had a graduation cap crudely drawn on the tag.

“What’s this? Isn’t it a little early for graduation presents?”

“Well,” Michael began. “Since I didn’t finish secondary school and you actually seem to enjoy the place, I thought I’d give you a small present as a bit of a reward for making it so far.”

“I’m just proud that you didn’t take after this punk,” Ash says affectionately, wrapping his arms around his husband.

I open the lid on the box and find a small velvet box. Nervously I open it up and am met with a folded up business card. I pull it out and unfold it and find a date set 2 weeks from now and a time written on it. I flip the card over and my eyes widen. I look up to my dads and see massive smiles on their faces.

“No way,” I get out.

“Yes way,” Dad says.

“In 2 weeks we are taking you to get another tattoo,” Father said heading towards the kitchen to start breakfast. I jumped up and hugged both of them before running upstairs to get a shower before school. I notice myself looking at my body trying to plan what I want and where. I already have song lyrics on my upper right arm and space print on the right side of my back going over my shoulder. So maybe something on my left side would be best and maybe on my lower half.

I’m rudely shaken from my planning by the water turning unbearably cold and Father yelling at me to hurry or I’d be late. I get out of the shower and towel off. I look at myself in the mirror like I did everyday and was met with a teenagers hormone face, pale skin that was from the entire summer break being spent inside, an eyebrow piercing I got because I saw Dad had one in old pictures and decided I wanted, a nose piercing with a silver hoop through it, and brown eyes that must have come from the egg. I grab my brush and try my best to get my hair to do something normal. The Irwin Hair Curse Dad called it, mine and Father’s hair would always end up looking similar to a puff ball if water was at all involved with it. It had gotten worse since I decided I wanted to bleach my whole head and color it blue; something else I’ve seen in old photos of Michael and decided I wanted to try. I loved my wavy hair, but only when it was dry and had product in it. And a look at the clock told me that I was later than I thought. I rush to my bedroom and throw on a pair of dangerously skinny black jeans and pull on an All Time Low shirt my best friend Alexa gave me for Christmas. She honestly probably got it for free since her dad’s were IN the band, but hey band merch is band merch.

I rushed down the steps in time to grab the nutella and toast Father had made me and struggled to get my worn down Vans and hoodie on at the same time while I ran out the door. Unfortunately, I ran face first into Dad’s chest and into a killer hug.

“Gotta go,” I struggled out. “Gotta pick up Alexa and the Hemmings before school.”

“Do you have all your things,” Father questioned as I searched for my car keys.

“Yep, put them in the car last night! All prepared. Love you guys!” I jumped into my car and saw Dad walk up to my window with a stern expression on his face. I was slightly worried since he was rarely ever stern. I rolled down the window for him to lean into.

“I know we’ve talked about this before, but I mean it when I say stay away from the Hood kids. They are nothing but trouble. Just like their father is. You understand me?”

“Yes Dad. You’ve told me this all break. That’s all you seem to worry about since Uncle Luke said about that guy coming back. I’ll steer clear of the Hoods. I love you, don’t worry.” Father came up and said good-bye before pulling Michael away from my window. I connected my music and headed off to pick up my friends.

After waiting for what felt like forever for Alexa to finally be ready and driving towards the Hemmings house, I realized we were surprisingly ahead of schedule. I pulled up in front of their house and let Alexa walk to the door while I turned on My Chemical Romance.

“How come you always have to play the same punk song when we pick up Blake,” Alexa questioned sliding back into the passenger seat while Blake went into the backseat.

“How can you be the child of 2 of the greatest musicians who ever lived, who play in the best punk band ever created, and your music taste is that of Cassadee Pope after the Voice,” I teased back.

“She’s kinda got a point babe,” Blake said from the back. “We’ve all been raised on Blink 182 and Green Day, but you are the only girl in our “group” who likes country music. Like seriously, your dads are Alex and Jack Barakat.”

“It must be because unlike you two, I grew up in the States and spent a lot of time with Aunt Cassadee,” Alexa shot back, tying her mousey brown hair into a ponytail.

“How she went from pop punk queen to country girl I’ll never understand. Where’s Baby Hemmings Blake? We’re going to be late.”

“Oh. Well you know how that guy our dad’s use to hang out with is back? Well my bro is like super close with his daughter and she’s giving him rides to school now.”

“Oh okay. Guess I better start driving.”

I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. I was suppose to hate this Hood girl. That’s what Dad said, but how could I hate a girl I never met. Honestly I didn’t want her to start any confrontation with me at school. If my dad’s were right about the Hood’s, then she would start trouble as soon as she heard either of my last names. I may be obnoxious and loud with my friends, but outside of my circle I was the weird girl who didn’t talk unless it was to answer a question, who was in the back of the library studying or in the art room working on a painting. I was grouped with the punks purely because of my tattoos, piercings, hair, and musical taste. If she had anything like that in common with me, then the school would force her with us.

“Wait,” Alexa began snapping me out of my small crisis. “MJ Hood, right?”

Blake nods in agreement and we both glance at her like she’s crazy.

“She’s the new goalie on the football team! I’m the one in charge of helping her around, like her big sis.”

“Fucking great,” I groan.

“What’s wrong?”

“Lexa, don’t know if you’re aware, but my dad has basically raised me to hate all Hoods. And I’m guessing her dad has raised her to hate the Cliffords.”

“But you’re also an Irwin,” she said trying to make the situation better.

“Doesn’t matter. Still a Clifford, hair and all.”

“Well you’re still going to stay after and watch practice and give me a ride home, right?”

“I guess, but only since Blake is going to be there too.”

“I got you Kels,” Blake said patting my shoulder.

“I just help her on the field, just so you don’t have to interact,” Alexa said trying to help.

“No, if she needs help getting around the first few days, help her. I don’t want to be rude.”

“Okay.”

We sit in silence for the rest of the trip to school. It was going to be a long day.

****  
  



	2. Chapter 1; Part 2- MJ

_Thump!_

“I do not have the energy or will to deal with this today dad,” I groan out as I duck under the covers to hide from my dad’s throws of the football that he uses every morning to get me up before he heads to work. Thump! The ball hits me again on the leg, this time a little harder, I know how this game plays out so I let out another loud groan and pull the covers back as I sit up in my bed. “I may be a keeper, but that doesn’t mean I can catch the damn ball when I’m sleeping,” I growl at my dad, who is leaning against my door frame bouncing his favourite football from knee to knee… smirking, as I rub the sleep out of my eyes.

“Seemed to be doing a pretty good job from where I was laughing,” my older brother, Marcus, snickered as he passed my door with Vegemite toast in hand, it already had two bites missing. I rolled my eyes and stuck my tongue out at him as my dad laughed.

I glared at my dad again as I stood and cracked my back while stretching. "Hey! You know you shouldn't crack your back, it could cause major spinal issues," my father warned, like only a concerned parent could, as he kneed the ball at me again. This time I caught it right as it was about to hit my head and tossed it over him and hit the back of my brother's head, Marcus groaned and glared at me in the hall mirror before heading to his room to change.

"You are right, it could, but till then I am going to continue relieving the morning cramps I have. Can you go now I need to change for school. And I don't know if Richard is walking here or if I have to pick him up, so kinda got to hurry," I rush trying to push my dad out of the doorway. He leans up and steps away from my door but hold it open with his foot.

"Luke called, Richard is walking here, you have a half hour before you have to leave. Don't forget you gear here. You can't run back to your dorm like you could at Bromsgrove. You would be stuck with school gear."

"I know, I know," I urge my father as I push him out of the way, "I don't really need to rush, don't forget my goalie bag, which is already on my bike have you. But I want to have time now bye." I finally get him out of the way and shut the door, locking it immediately. I can hear my father's chuckle drift through the wood.

"Okay, I get that this move has been hard on you, but you've only been gone 4 years. How much could everything change?" My dad asks light heartedly. I exhale when I hear his steps fade off.

"A lot more than you can believe..." I mumble to myself as I lean against the door. You see my dad is Calum Hood, the former right wing for Liverpool FC. The press thinks that my dad packed up my brother and I, and now is the offence coach to Sydney FC is because they offered a better deal and he wanted to be closer to family. That's partly true, they only kinda offered a better deal, even though dad never cared about the money or the cars or anything, and he did start to miss his friends and family here but that wasn't the main reason. The real reason was it turns out that my mother was shagging the center mid for Chelsea.

After a game dad caught them, kicked a ball right at him, threw his ring on the floor, about three weeks later my parents were divorced, dad was signed with Sydney, and we were on a plane to our new home down the road from the Hemmings.

I sigh as the rushed events flow over me, and pick out the faded grey skinny jeans with rips running up and down both legs starting at the calf and ending about mid thigh, some old black converse, and my blue Paramore Never Grow Old shirt and throw them on quickly. I let my hair out of the bun and let my semi-wet hair fall down to my hips, I got long hair, and see the the curls already starting to take form; shortening my hair a good six inches. Grabbing my laptop and throwing it in my book bag and slipping my phone into my back pocket, I head downstairs to get some food.

Once I reach our extremely large kitchen for three people, I notice Richard Hemmings, my only friend that I still talk to that lives in Sydney, sitting at the bar on a stool eating some eats and Vegemite toast. Rich looked almost identical to his father, when Uncle Luke was a teen of course. The only difference was he had his mom's green eyes and caramel colored hair. But he was already standing 6'4" at just 16 and was expected to keep growing, he was a nice median of pale but not sickly, and had soft features that had all the right edges. Instead of having his lip pierced he had a small blue ring that hung from his septum. I had my cartilage pierced and a silver lip ring that has a small red ball that sits in the middle of the ring.

I sneak up behind Richard and pinch his sides. He swings his arms wildly trying to beat the hands away but just ends up falling off the back of the stool, landing right on his arse. I have to laugh at his extreme lankiness. "Morning Hemo, good to see you are enjoying my food," I smirk as I steal a bite of toast and eggs.

"Why am I friends with an evil bitch like you?" He groans back as he untangled from the stool and picked it and himself up. He flicks me off and I just smile wildly, grabbing myself a bowl of Special K strawberry cereal from the cupboard. "Also I'll have you know, short fry," he continued once he was sitting back down and eating, "your dad made them for me. So don't be a brat just because Cal loves me more."

"Okay first off, I'm not short. I'm 173 cm, you are just a giant of 2.5 meters. And two I got cereal and cereal is the best thing ever so I'm good, and three both our dads love me a lot more than you or your siblings or my brother," I shrug and smirk when I see him frown at my words.

"I'm not even 2 meters, jerk," Richard mumbled as he finished his food. "And you are only loved because you got eyes like my dad and your mom and a body type and skin tone of Cal, you are literally the best of both our dads. And you aren't even related to my dad."

I look over to the mirror that hangs across from the counter that we were eating at. He has a point, is all I can think. Both my mom and Luke have the same bright blue eyes, and I got them. I have my dad's jet black hair, only I added purple highlights to it, and my mom's curls are in place of my dad's flat hair. The shape of my eyes is slight Asian, but not enough for someone to comment, but my skin was a smooth tan that only fits that of an islander. The skin came from both parents. "You are right, it sucks too look in the mirror and see that bitch looking back," I sigh, still looking in the mirror.

I heard Rich gap at the sudden change in mood. "MJ.." He stammered trying regain the ground he lost, "I- I didn't mean-"

"It's whatever. I was over it before it happened. Come let's just go. I don't want anyone to hate me before I even start my first day of school," I rush with a fake smile, I round the counter and grab my book bag off of the couch and my motocross bike keys off the hook.

As I open the door I hear a muffled, "you are a little late."

I turn back to look at Richard. "What do you mean? Who could possibly already hate me? I got here two weeks ago, no one knows I exist here yet!" I bombard him. He puts his hands up in defense and I retreat the two steps I had taken when yelling.

"My dad told Ash and Mike about it one day in passing conversation, apparently Michael has trained his daughter to hate you," Rich explains quickly as he slings his bag over his shoulder and walking towards me.

I groan in frustration and rest my forehead against his chest once he has stepped close enough, I have train Richard to not fight it and instead he wraps an arm around me in support. "Why does he hate my dad so much?! Like they were best friends for 10 years and played in a band for a bit, what the actual fuck happened?" I groan shaking my head back and forth while still against his chest.

Rich rubs my back soothingly while replying, "I don't know. Whenever I press my dad or Uncle Ash they close up. Must of been something bad, the most I ever get out is that Michael got him back in an equally terrible way. Now come on we need to get to classes."

I straighten up and lead the way to my bike. It's not ridiculous or anything just a simple two seater motocross bike that has a compartment under the back seat, it only ever hold my keeper gear or my book bag in the off season. I throw Hemo the black back up hemelt and slip on my red one, then kick the bike to a start. He throws his leg over the other side like one would do to a horse and grabs my waist tight, I couldn't help but giggle at how strange we must look to anyone passing. I then rev my engine and kick off, sending us on our way to another day of high school hell. 


	3. Chapter 2: Kelsie

I parked my car in the “End of Year Only” parking and let Blake get out of the back seat before I crawled in to organize what I’d need. While it was true that I had all my supplies in my car, they weren’t exactly in my bag; more like tossed about from never leaving the car from last year. If I needed a pen or a piece of paper, I would just grab it from my bag then toss it back to be lost till I needed it again. I found a surprisingly clean notebook with most of its pages still intact and a few pens and pencils to shove into my bag along with my rather expensive drawing journal and color pencils that I never let leave my person. If there was one thing I respected in this world more than music, it was art.

After double checking to make sure I had everything I’d need for the day and even after for when I’d be sitting in the bleachers, I started to follow behind Alexa and Blake. They were busy being the classes “it” couple to pay attention to what I was doing. Which was making sure I didn’t get any unwanted attention, especially from the Hood siblings. Of course I knew what they looked like, you don’t get told from birth that someone is your enemy without being curious as to what they look like. I may have googled them in the past and more recently when I found out they would be coming back. If we weren’t enemies, I’d probably feel bad for them, having their personal lives thrown into the public after their parents divorce. None the less, I kept my eyes open for them. not wanting to step on any toes.

I made my way to my locker to drop off my art supplies until my advanced art class. I made my way to my American Literature class and sat down next to Alexa and passed notes back and forth while Mr. Ward talked about the class and the books we’d be reading in class; both Alexa and I had already read plenty of times. My second period was my study hall so I made my way to the library like I was known to do. I said my hellos to the librarians and made my way to the  back of the room like I always did.

The back of the library was all but abandoned. No one not even the librarians came back here. It as the perfect place to be alone and think. Or if you were me, write poetry and read. I pulled out my old bent up journal and flipped to one of the thinning free pages; stopping occasionally to look at some old work and notice how much I’ve grown. I’ve never let anyone look at what was written in this book, not even Alexa or Blake. There was some dark stuff in here, personal demons that I have long since vanquished, but still knowing that my best friends would be hurt if they saw how broken I was at that point was reason enough not to show them.

I pulled out a pencil and started working on a new poem. Seeing as there was really one thing going through my mind at that point, I had only one muse.

_We would become a pair of star crossed lovers_

_Our Fathers hate but we find the passion_

_Be the Juliet to my fair Romeo_

_Mercutio shall hide us in his Tower of London_

_the look in our eyes says we’ll run away_

_Good girls turned bad girls_

_we will never be caught_

I’m so focused on my poem that I don’t notice Blake approaching me until he puts his hand on my shoulder. I let out a yelp and slam my book closed.

“You damn near gave me a heart attack Hemmings,” I whisper yell.

“Well you were about to be late for art, the bell’s about to ring and I know you like to be early to art.”

I pack up my things and walk with Blake to our lockers and grab my art supplies leaving my other books to be picked up after lunch. I walked Blake to his psych class and made my way to art. Honestly if there was one class I hated on the first day of school, it was art. Sitting and listening to the teacher talk about lines and other basic elements made me want to tear my hair out. Luckily this year I had my favorite art teacher and he knew I didn’t like to just sit still, so he gave me the first assignment and let me work in the hallway; since he knew I knew the basics.

Art flew by and before I knew it I was sitting at our usual lunch table with Blake and Alexa. Even better the lunch was chicken sandwiches so I super happy.

“Hey, Kels. Can you get me some napkins,” Alexa asked me trying to wipe some sauce off her face. I grabbed my notebook and left the table.

Unfortunately I looked down for one second to try and get paint off of my fingernail, when I run face first into someone and drop my journal.  Good job Kels, your first day back and you already hit someone. I look up and am met with a pair of angry brown eyes and curious blue one. Now I’m really mentally hitting myself because of course I run into the Hood kids. MJ hands me my notebook and I’m about to try and avoid all conflict when he opens his mouth.

"Well let me guess, dyed hair, too pale to live, and a huge klutz, you have to be a Clifford.”

There goes my good mood and my ‘Clifford’ attitude starts to show.

"Tan, douchey, and an overall asshole, got to be a Hood rat,” I snap back. It’s seriously times like this where you can swear I’m biologically Michaels’ because once you flip my switch, I go from quiet and shy too loud and obnoxious. He’s about to say something else when MJ cuts him off, handing me my notebook and I momentarily forget what I was mad about; until I hear him scoff.

"Hi. I'm MJ, it's nice to meet you. Kelsie right? Your Ash's kid?" I can’t actually tell if she’s trying to me nice or just faking. Either way my mood is too crap to try and butter her up.

"Yeah,” I say. “Kelsie Clifford-Irwin. I'm Michael's and Ashton's daughter. It was…” I hesitate, not going to say it’s nice to meet you. I look and see Richard waiting to see what happens.  “I gotta go. I'll see you around Richie."

I walk back to my table and sit down trying not to feel the eyes staring at my back.

“You forgot my napkins,” Alexa pouts trying to lighten the mood a bit. I just shake my head and open my journal to make sure none of the pages got torn. I’m just barely get close it when my face suddenly gets covered in chocolate milk. My eyes go wide with confusion and anger. I whip around and see MJ laughing hysterically and Rich with a bit of a horrified expression on his face.

I grab my slushie off my tray and push my chair out; my face holding nothing but rage.

“Kelsie, no,” my friends say trying to get me to sit down.

“Kelsie, yes,” I spit. If she wants to play that game, then she better know the rules.

I storm over to her table and pour my blue slush right on top of her head.

“WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU,” she screams in my face trying to get the cold liquid off of her. I just smirk.

“You don’t know what you just started,” she growls out. I just laugh and before I know what’s happening she’s tossing her soup at me and it’s so hot I almost have to check to make sure I don’t have actual burns from it. Soon we hear someone scream ‘FOOD FIGHT’ and food is flying from every direction. I run back to my table and try to avoid getting hit as much as possible. I poke my head up from where I hiding and get a face full of mashed potatoes. I grab a random fruit cup and am about to throw it when I’m suddenly face to face with the Dean of Students. I freeze.

“Miss. Clifford,” Crap, I knew I was in trouble when he called me Clifford instead of Clifford-Irwin. “The faculty tells me that you were the first person to throw food. Is this true?”

“I didn’t start it Mr. Callahan. MJ Hood threw milk at me. Honest.” I rarely ever got in trouble. The last time I got in trouble was because one of the faculty heard me say ‘fuck’ in the hallway and even then I just got scolded.

“Is this true,” Mr. Callahan asked the lunch room. No one spoke up.

“Well seeing as Miss. Hood is no where to be seen, and this is your first offence to my recollection, I’ll have to give you Saturday detention.” My face fell as he walked away. “Please don’t make this a habit, Kelsie,” he said over his shoulder before he left.

“Could this day get any worse,” I mumbled as I wiped some of the Clam Chowder off of my shirt.

****  
  



	4. Chapter 2: MJ

I pull up to the school and kill the engine, letting Hemo get off before I land the kickstand and get off. I take off my helmet and swap it with my goalie bag in the compartment under the second seat. “You don’t mind hanging on to the other helmet all day? Because there’s kinda no room in the holder, one helmet only kinda space,” I question Richard as I shake out my hair and we walk to the school.

“It’s fine, I got plenty of space in my locker. Come on I’ll show you to the office here for your map and schedule,” He replies as he flings an arm around my waist, shortening up his steps to compensate for the height difference.

That’s when it begins. The second we step through the door I hear the first wolf whistle. I rolled my eyes and tried to ignore it. You see being on a shit ton of meds- like acne pills, and creams, and washes, and birth control- kinda stopped the whole problem of acne and unclear skin, working out with the Liverpool Football team gave me a perfectly muscular body, and my mother’s Victoria Secret Angel DNA helped with the womanly parts. So to make the point, I was that of an A lister's child since I was. I was used to the noise before we left for Liverpool, but once I got there I was surrounded by the same people everyday and you just get used to good looking people after seeing them everyday. Coming back to the world, out of uniform and all, is kinda terrifying. I hid it well, I think at least, that I wasn't letting it get to me.

Luckily Richard saw through it. He remembered what it was like when I first hit puberty, the comments and how everyone treated me. His grip on my waist tightened as he walked down the halls. That's when the voice came. "Well, well, well, look at what Hemo got over break," a snide voice came ringing down the hall. I look up to Rich and see his face paler and hard, his grip becoming almost painful. He wouldn’t let me turn to see who it was, I turned slightly to look at the arsehole. He was shorter than Richard, like most everyone else, by about three inches, had a stocky build, jet black hair that was buzzed into the high and tight, a square jaw, evenly tanned skin of someone that spent too much of their summer break at the beach, such clear grey eyes it was electric, and tight lips pulled into a wicked grin. “Well I guess Hemo ain’t a homo after all. No. Not possible. There is no way a freak like you could score a babe like this. How much you pay her?” He barked at Richard. I don’t think I ever seen such a tall person seem so small.

“Fuck yourself Tyler. I don’t have the patience to deal with your shit this year. Come MJ the office is at the end of the hall,” Richard pushes trying to get around ‘Tyler’. He guides me by the hand on my waist, still hurting me slightly but not enough to say something.

Tyler rips Richard’s arm away from me, pushing him away and pulling me in. “MJ huh?” He questions smirking even more, I look to Richard seeing him being held back by three other guys who look similar to Tyler with their levels of doucheness. He looks me over again, making me squirm comfortably. “MJ Hood right? Back from Liverpool, what did your daddy miss good old Aus?"

"Let go of me and Rich, I need to get to the office to receive my things," I enforce, pulling away from his grasp. He tightens around me, but it was the opposite of Richard's grip. This was for control and not protection.

"Wow, live in another country for a few years and change the accent. Come on babe I can take you to the office. Just after we go somewhere else," he slimes, the venom dripping in his words.

Okay I have seen a lot of bad movies, and I know that on the first day the new girl always gets hit on. But really? Rape on the first day? I am in no mood to deal with that shit. Luckily dad made us take so many self defense classes it would be sad if I couldn't get out of this. "How about no," I deadpan. I grab the hand on my waist and flip it so it's not sit right and push it up against his back. I turn him so my back is to Richard, and kicking him down forcing him to slide across the hallway floor. I hit the friend to the left of Rich in the balls and he drops. Setting my foot down for a second, I spring back up; giving the one behind him a solid round house kick to the head. I look for the the third ready to strike but he's already left. I turn to see Hemo smiling way too bright.

"I love you. Please marry me, I'll let you fuck whoever, but seriously marry me. Our kids would look great," he spits out with a laugh, the sunshine smile still shining.

I couldn't help but laugh and smile with him. "I'll think about it," I manage to giggle out, "come on I still need to get to the office."

The rest of the walk was peaceful, except for those few calls, no one came up to us. Once at the office we were greeted by a younger looking woman with, light brown hair, big brown eyes, and an average everything. "Hello," she greeted sweetly, "how may I help you?"

"Umm I'm new here, I was told to come get my schedule and map here on the first day. My name is Madlenka-Jaden Hood," I reply. She nods curtly and starts typing something on her laptop, then shuffles through a folder. She slipped out two sheets of paper handed them to me and walked away. Richard and I stood there for a little expecting her to come back and give me a little more help. "Well I guess I'm on my own now," I announce dully.

Richard grabs my shoulders and shook me. "No, you are not alone. You got me and Marcus after 3rd period. You will be fine," he reassured with a smile. I let a sigh and nod my head with a smile. "Good now let's see this schedule." He reaches and grabs the slip of paper from my hands. "Holy shit you are an idiot," is Richard's only response after looking at my paper for a minute. "Like honors English 4, ap history, ap psychology, and honors calculus, oh but your electives are advance music, resistance 3, and fencing. Are you trying to kill yourself? You also have footie on top of all of that. You won't make it."

"Thank you so much for the pep talk bubbly," I sneered sarcastically as I grab back the paper. I look over at the clock and see first period starts in 4 minutes. "Look I had a harder schedule in England, I'll be fine with this. I have to go now, class is across the school," I shout as I begin to walk away, "I'll see you at lunch!"

My first three classes were boring, I had English first, then history and finally fencing. Fencing was only boring because I had learned so much at the boarding school, it is quite slow for me, the teacher noticed and let me fence him for most of the class. Ap psych was my last class before lunch and I was so excited to finally eat. All the work kinda drained it out of me.

I step in to the classroom and notice one person that I haven't seen in years. Blake Hemmings looked only enough like his brother that a person would believe that they are related. Blake looks like his father, if Luke was compacted to a 5'10" frame. His hair is that same sandy blond and has Luke's blue eyes, his shoulders are broader and he is much more muscular than any of the other Hemmings, that was all due to being captain of the rugby team. He was slightly tanner than the others but not too much to look like me or my father.

Blake never really talked to me, or at least not like Rich. He had his headphones in and eyes on his phone, smiling like a mad man. By the smile I could tell that he was texting his girlfriend, her name is like Lex, or Alexia or something like that. I walk over to him and tap his shoulder, he snaps his head up and pulls the earbuds out. "Is this seat taken?" I ask pointing to the one to his left.

Blake smiles at me standing up, "not at all, please do sit Miss Hood," he muses pulling me into a bear hug.

I tap his arm arm rapidly while huffing out, "can't breathe, you behemoth." He pulls back but stills holds my arms. While Blake was Luke's son he had Ashton's smile. It seemed as though all of us got traits from the other band members even if there was no blood relation. His dimples were as deep as wells and and his teeth shone white as he looked me over.

"God when did you actually become a girl?" Was the first question out of his mouth, I scoff and roll my eyes at him. "You know what I mean, last time I saw you, you were thirteen and not truly affected by puberty. God congrats on making starting keeper, hanging out with your dad's team must of done you some good huh? Oh how is Uncle Cal? The divorce has been all over the news here! Shit! I probably shouldn't of brought that up, you and Marcus are in the news everyday, fuck the tabloids right?" He rushes through in one breath, another thing that he got from Ash.

"Breath would ya mate? I get what you mean, you were a lot skinnier too, but rugby has done you well. Yeah Liverpool helped me perfect my footie skills. My dad has been going through it day by day, but he's better you know? I prefer you not talk about it. And yeah the English tabloids are always worst in England, supposedly I was fucking the Liverpool keeper and am pregnant. And that's why we came back to Aus," I speed through with a shrug. The whole life in the headlines thing got really intense for me and Marcus for the last year. They don't know what has actually happened but that never stopped them from trying to.

"Hey dad always says it could be worse, when the boys broke up it was hell on all of them. Anyway enough hell talk, what are you doing in AP psychology?" He smoothed trying, and succeeding, to calm the mood and lighten the conversation. Blake always had that effect on people, could calm almost anyone with a smile and a few words. He was the one to kill the fights when we were kids.

I smile at him, "you know I've always had the hardest classes. This was one of the classes to school recommend. Aka forced me to take because it will make them look good when I pass." He simply nods agreeing and paying attention.

He goes to say something else but the teacher calls the class to attention. We all move around sitting down when I look over and see two girls looking at me and saying something. "Hello class, welcome to AP psych. We will be using the class to collect a lot of the data so make sure that you answer everything honestly. Also when you an- umm already a question Maria?" Mr. Kelly asks as he was interrupted by one of the girls from before clearing her throat and raising her hand.

We all turn back to look at her, I wonder how she can have a question within the first two minutes of class on the first day. Her painted red lips stretch into a thin smile as she looks from her friend, to Mr. Kelly, before finally landing on me. "I was just wondering," Maria begins to seethe out with an icy and cruel chill in her tone, "if we should really use MJ's answers in the data for all class analysis."

Mr. Kelly is as confused as the rest of us. He pulls his brows in close and crosses his arms. "Why wouldn't we include her in the data? She is just as much a part of this class therefore the data we collect."

"You are right Mr. Kelly, for now. I just don't think that teens that are pregnant should be included in the general population of teens. You know hormones and all," she replies almost to happy with herself.  Her along with her friend and some of the other kids in class start to laugh. I burn red and Blake just looks at me and shakes his head, mentally telling me to chill.

"And why would you say that she is pregnant?" Mr. Kelly asks in return, my jaw drops. No immediate reports to the office, no calls of being out of line. Just one simple cool question.

"Well that's simple Mr. Kelly. One she's obviously showing already, and two there is no way you get the entire Liverpool FC to help you out with your footie skills unless you are banging someone on the team," she all but cackled out that time.

"Okay that's enough. God you really are so stupid that you would believe a fucking gossip magazine?! I didn't screw any of my dad's teammates. I am most certainly not pregnant! If anything your friend is the one who is actually showing, let me guess hunny three months. Right after school let out last year?" I bark back, so much pent up anger at my mom, and the tabloids, and everything else coming out at once. Her friend looks shock then looks back at Maria, with nothing but a betrayed look in her eyes, before sprinting out of the room.

"Miss Hood. That is enough. Take your seat I don't hear from you the rest of the lesson," Mr. Kelly demands. I couldn't hold back my shocked expression as I sit down. Blake gives me a look of sympathy and empathy. He has had enough of his family's name be plastered in the tabloids to know how you get sometimes. Especial ever since he started dating Alexa, the daughter of Alex and Jack Barakat. Well this school will be great, is what popped into my head as Mr. Kelly began talking again.

I was more than excited to get out of that class. Maria was glaring daggers right at me the whole period. I gathered my stuff the second the bell dismissed us, I shouted a ‘later’ to Blake as I sprinted out the door. I found Richard waiting by my locker for me with a classic smirk playing on his lips, Marcus was right next to him looking as if he just woke up from a nap (knowing his class schedule as well as mine, he probably did). His smirk falls the second he can see me clearly, reading the distress easily.

"What the hell happened and who do I have to hurt?" He rushes as he takes my bag and puts it into my already unlocked locker. I lean into him, snuggling close, taking in the sweet scent of vanilla that is Richard. I feel Marcus walk behind me and scratch my scalp in just the right way to relax me.

"No one Hemo, I promise," I sigh out, letting the stress of last period go with it. "Just some bitch last period accused me being prego with one of my dad's old teammate's kid. And when I called her friend out on actually being pregnant I got in trouble."

Richard hums as he lifts me bridal style to take me to lunch, it was just one of those things when one of us has had enough of the stress of who we are we just carry each other to food. I can hear Marcus curse as he follows. "I told dad that us going here would be a bad idea. It's like the fucking homeland of all famous people's children, we are the biggest targets with what has just happened," he adds rubbing his temple.

"Marcus it's fine, everything will blow over in no time," I muses to calm him, I can see a little bit of the stress rollaway. Not enough to make me feel much better but a little.

We enter the cafeteria like hitting a wave of sound. There is a small stage in one corner that is covered with instruments, but like rock instruments not school band instruments. Richard puts me back down and guides us over to the food line.  We move through it pretty quickly without too much effort. Once out of the line I point out a empty circle table on the right side by a big school flag. It's some what in the middle but it will work.

We begin to it when a girl runs right into Marcus. Luckily nothing spilled, but she dropped her journal book thing. It lands right on my foot so I lift my foot and grab it, handing it to the girl she smiles thankfully before turning to Marcus. I have to admit, she's hot. She has this perfect curly hair that was dyed a beautiful blue, about the same color as my eyes. Her skin was way too pale but still looked great, her chocolate eyes matched my dad's but looked better on her. Her eyebrow piercing was a great added bonus. She reminded me of two people that I have seen in some of my dad's old photos but I couldn't place a name or anything but a fussy face.

"Well let me guess, dyed hair, too pale to live, and a huge klutz, you have to be a Clifford," Marcus growls out before she could apologize, which she was going to do I assume by her opened mouth. All the pieces click into place with that. The images of my dad's past clear and I see Michael and Ashton clearly in this girl.

Her shock goes to spit in a second as she finally looks Marcus and I over. "Tan, douchey, and an overall asshole, got to be a Hood rat," she snaps back. Marcus scoffs and rolls his eyes.

I can see him opening his mouth to say something else and this would only turn into an all out war that I did not want to deal with on my first day. "Hi," I butt in quickly take up the small space between them, passing my tray to Richard, "I'm MJ, it's nice to meet you. Kelsie right? Your Ash's kid?"

Her eyes roll obviously annoyed but I keep on the smile, not wanting to make a bigger scene. She sighs then replies, "yeah Kelsie Clifford-Irwin. I'm Michael's and Ashton's daughter. It was... I got to go. I'll see you around Richie." Kelsie waves to Rich who nods and smiles back before she walks off to a table with a thin brunette girl with pale skin and Blake sitting there already. Blake nods his head back at me and Kelsie just waves her hand and shakes her head in a slightly annoyed manner.

"Well that could of gone worse," Rich chips in with a smile as he begins to move to the still empty table. I turn and glare at my brother before following him, knowing Marc wasn't far behind.

"You didn't need to be so rude, bro. She was going to apologize," I scold my brother. He rolls his eyes and begins eating the burger he grabbed. I turn to Richard opting to ignore the piss baby beside me. "So tell me what happened in your classes so far, Richie?" I change subjects tried of the stress of everything that has been going on.

Richard then begins to go and tell me the story of how a girl got chased by a fox that got on the track during his gym class. I couldn't help but laugh at the whole thing. It was so nice to feel the stress washing away from me. Everything was great.

Till I feel an icy chill being dumped into my hair, and blue liquid running down into my eyes. “WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!” I yell as I quickly wipe my hands up my face and through my hair, forcing the slushie- I recognized the substance the second the juice hit the side of my mouth- onto my back. It made me shiver, I stand and turn to my attacker, I see Kelsie standing with an empty styrofoam cup in her hand a killer smirk on her lips. “You don’t know what you just started,” I hiss at her, she lets out a scoff at that.

A deep growl bubbles up from my chest I grab for the clam chowder I was eating and dump it down her front. She lets out a hiss as the hot liquid hits her, forcing her back a meter or so. "FOOD FIGHT!" Rings from near by and through the cafeteria that second. Then it was like a bad teen movie, most everyone picks up a piece of food and throws it.

"Come on let's get you cleaned up. I'll show you to the locker rooms," Richard rushes grabbing my wrist and dragging me out of the room and down the hall. We run for a minute till we come to two bathroom doors. "There is shampoo, conditioner, and towels in the locker rooms. I'll wait here for you."

"Thanks Hemo, I just kinda wanna know why the hell she did it," I moan of stress and confusion.

"Kels can be a little harsh sometimes. Don't worry about it, just go shower remember you can't look guilty, you have practice," he shrugs, then shoves me into the locker room.

I strip and put my wet shirt in the sink to wash then throw it in the swimsuit dryer. I grab the towel from the bin and check that the shower stall has shampoo and conditioner. I set the towel on the hook and turn the water on high heat.

After a long shower I dry off and redress in my clean warm clothes. I braid my hair swiftly and look in the mirror. This is going to be a long year.

**  
**


	5. Chapter 3; Kelsie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Lovelies!!!! This is where shit starts to get real... I think, you see we actually have a bunch of the story written and the rest mapped out, but after a while you begin to forget what happens when! Ugg anyway I hope you enjoy the mess that is these characters lives! Much Love- Jeanine

After the food fight, I leave the cafeteria to go try and clean up. Alexa follows me seeing as she has what looks to be melted cheese plastered to the side of her face and hair and a few bits of some green stuff splattered on her jeans. I grab my 12th year jersey from locker and decide that it’s better than walking around in a soupy shirt for the rest of the day.

       At the beginning of our 12th years we fill out forms and get school jerseys with our schools logo, graduating class number, and a nickname on it. I honestly loved my jersey for the first few weeks I had it. Our schools colors were Midnight Blue and Plum Purple so the shirt wasn’t like gross colors and our crest was nice enough. My problem with the shirt now was my nickname. I got the nickname ‘Cliffaconda’ sometime around my 7th year when I was really into Harry Potter and found out my house was Slytherin. Most of the school thought the name was pretty cool, so I didn’t care. It wasn’t until I let my dad’s wash it one time when I found out. Apparently, when my dad’s were still in the band, some fans started calling my Dad’s dick ‘The Cliffaconda’.

So I’ve basically demoted the shirt to be worn when I paint or dye my hair. It was covered in splashes of paint that wouldn’t wash out and hair dye that was left sitting on it too long. But right now it was better than the shirt I was wearing before. Alexa and I went to the washroom by the gym and I tried to wash my band shirt in the sink with hand soap while Alexa was bent over the sink washing her hair. In the end I got most of the stains out of the shirt surprisingly, washed a lot of food out of my hair, and was left with just some splashes of some liquid on my shoes. Alexa got the cheese out of her hair and the food off her pants, but still smelled like a mix of shampoo and broccoli.

“That fucking bitch,” I mutter as I’m tossing my soaked shirt into a plastic bag I found in the washroom.

“Stop,” Alexa said slamming a wad of used paper towels into the bin.

“What? If she hadn’t of thrown her milk at us then I wouldn’t had to of retaliated.”

“She didn’t throw the milk Kelsie,” she all but screamed. I was taken back by her mood shift.

“Blake and I were watching their table and Marcus grabbed her milk and threw it then hid behind his friends before you even turned around. That’s why we were trying to stop you. If you hadn’t have gone full ‘Clifford’, then you would have heard us tell you and you wouldn’t have had to clean clam chowder off of your shirt.”

I stopped dead in my tracks. Sometimes it really sucked to be short tempered and quick minded. I let my head fall into my hands.

“Fuck,” I let out.

“But, in your defense, she did have no right to throw that chowder on you without asking why,” Alexa tried to comfort me. “Next time though, try and control your temper.”

“Sorry I didn’t have the will to play nice when I’m covered in chocolate milk. Next time I’ll wait half an hour.”

“No need to get snippy with me missy! I’m on your side.”

“Right sorry,” I apologize. “But yeah, if she didn’t throw the milk then she could have questioned.”

“Let’s try and just over look this okay? We’re clean now and you got off pretty clean with your discipline. Last people to start a food fight got suspended, remember?”

“Yeah, whatever.” I wave it off and collect my stuff and we walk off towards our 5th period classes. MJ is still cooking in the back off my mind and before I can walk into my Advanced Acting class, my brain decides she’s still public enemy number one. Any normal person would have asked, I reasoned. She assumed. She was at fault too. I should give her my detention slip, or give it to her brother since he threw the milk.

I tried to wipe the bad mood off my face, but I should have known my teacher would know I was in a bad mood. I walked into class as he was dismissing them to go look for a monologue, what he made us do every first day of school. I’ve had Mr. Hodge as my acting teacher since I’ve entered secondary school and he can read me better than play directions.

I walk over to his second desk explain why I was late, but he gestured for me to sit down. I knew this was going to one of Hodge’s Special Talks seeing as I hardly ever came into the classroom without a bright smile on my face. The last time was after my cat died.

“So why the long face Kels? Another animal death?”

“Haha. Not so much. Just spent the last half an hour trying to get food out of my hair.”

“Right. I saw that food fight. If I wasn’t wearing a new shirt I would have joined.” I had to laugh because I knew he wasn’t lying.

“Yeah now I have detention for something that I didn’t start. It was the fu- uh, freaking, Hood kids.”

“I know your Dad, Michael, doesn’t get along with their Father, but you shouldn’t let that stop you from ending the feud.”

“Thanks Hodge, but this fight is worse than the Capulets and Montagues. And I’m not going to pull a Romeo and drink poison to end it.”

“Well just think about that while you’re looking for a monologue to perform tomorrow. And nothing more from Doctor Who. If I hear you perform the monologue from The Rings of Akhaten again, I’ll throw myself off a cliff.”

“Anything for you Hodge,” I smiled as I got up from my chair and made my way to the pile of books Hodge had laid out for us. What he said still being processed in my mind. I still had a grudge, that wasn’t going anywhere.

Acting class ended, 6th period chemistry came and when with me just sitting at my desk being bored out of my mind, the same with 7th period statistics. Luckily my final class for the day was Advance Music. I was super excited to be in the class. I was able to switch out of my other bull shit elective for it; there were 2 spots left. I was nervous because I knew of the teacher and his old students told me to be careful. I knew I couldn’t fuck up too bad because I was top student in the Beginning Music class and Intermediate Music class. The teacher for both even spoke highly of my skills to this teacher. I guess I got some natural skill from Ashton since he knows how to play a lot of instruments and still works as a producer for Hi Or Hey Records. There really wasn’t a software I could figure out how to mix a new track with or an instrument that I couldn’t learn quickly; except for one.

I walk to the class and am greeted by my new teacher Mr. Zortman. I had seen him around and hear horror stories from Alexa of him in chorus; which she had 7th period. I tried to sneak my way past him, but when your hair is practically neon blue, it’s hard to sneak anywhere. I’m stopped just outside the class by a hand on my shoulder.

“You must be Kelsie Clifford-Irwin,” Mr. Zortman muses.

“Yes sir. That’s me.”

“It is a pleasure to finally meet the student that Mr. Martini has ranted and raved about for the past 2 years. Let’s hope your reputation doesn’t succeed you Miss. But I’m sure being the child of 2 musicians; you must know what you’re doing.”

“There’s still very much for me to learn sir,” I reply politely hoping I don’t step on his toes. “I look forward to your lessons.”

“Excellent! Well you can go in and take your seat. I allow the class to relax before I start class so feel free to chat or listen to music or what have you.”

I nod my head and make a beeline for a seat in the front row. I look around and most people are chatting to friends or laying their heads on their desks with earbuds in. I pull out my phone and start to play All Time Low through my earbuds. I rest my head on my hands and zone out staring at the floor. I guess I zoned out pretty well because a student next to me has to hit my arm for me to take my earbuds out. I look up and Mr. Zortman is introducing the class to everyone.

“.... you will learn to perfect song writing, singing, and playing of an instrument. The final project will incorporate all of these; you will get the assignment now and work on it throughout the whole year. Then you will be made to perform your final produce in the cafeteria on the Coffee Shop Stage. The project is that you will be paired up with another student in this class. You must get to know them, learn about their families, their hobbies, their secrets, then you must write and perform a song that you have written that is about the other student. Thanks to the surveys that you filled out before the start of school I have already been able to pair you all up. I will now read the list of names; they go in alphabetical order of the oldest partner.”

My name was going to probably be one of the first few called seeing as most of the End Of Years were also 17 and my last name, although hyphenated, was Clifford.

“Adders and Frost, Albright and Greyson, Backs and Ford, Beck and Swifter, Clifford-Irwin and Hood,” Mr. Zortman called out.

My head whipped back so fast I’m surprised I didn’t snap my neck; I half wish I did. I easily spotted MJ with a “deer in headlights” look on her face as she tried to look for me. Our eyes met and for a split second I forgot about why I was mad. Then reality smacked me and my eyes narrowed into a glare. I roll my eyes and let out a huff of air as I turn around in my seat. Zortman read off the rest of the names before continuing.

“Alright! Those are all the pairs. And before anyone asks, the answer is no. You may not under any circumstance change partners. Now everyone pick up a syllabus and meet with your partner in one of the sound rooms in this room or one on the right or left of this.”

Great, I was stuck with her for the rest of the year; if we survived that long together. As Zortman left to go to his office, everyone dispersed with their partners to a room. I looked back to see MJ already staring at me. I rolled my eyes and grabbed my bag ready to leave the room. I stopped at the door to leave the room to go to the special sound proof room I had access to when I remembered she wouldn’t know about the room. I waved for her to follow me and she just rolled her eyes at me. Fuck it, she can figure out which room is mine. I left the room and walked the short way to the specialized sound proof room my dad's had funded for me to use basically whenever I wanted. It wasn’t uncommon for me to be in here after school or on a weekend when I wasn’t at work. I used the key I had to unlock the door and went to open it when MJ finally decided to join me.

This place was almost like a second bedroom to me. By that I mean I felt like I had privacy and was safe in its walls. The room is larger than the other soundproof rooms and seems almost like a second classroom; not that the music rooms were large anyway. The one wall was lined with extra instruments since I really didn’t mind the teachers using the space for storage. I used the room for many projects, not all just music. There were paint drops on the floor and a bit of clay stuck to one of the pop filters from when I used it as a rolling pin.

I threw my bag into the one corner and grabbed my Luna acoustic and began to tune it while MJ went to pick an instrument. I got the guitar a few years back as a bit of a splurge. I bought it for its Henna design since I wasn’t a fan of the brown color like I was of the purple Eclipse I had back home. I let this one here for school; though no one was allowed to use it.

As I finish tuning, I notice her placing a violin and a bass guitar from the 90’s on the table. I laugh to myself.

“Why the hell do you have a violin, you think you can use a violin to describe me?” She’s going to make me sound like a sad sack with that. As if to prove me wrong she picks up the instrument and bow and begins to play what I assume is a Lindsey Stirling song. I wasn’t well versed in her songs, but I had to admit MJ had skill with the violin. As much as I didn’t want to be impressed by it, I was. She finished and my jaw was practically on the floor. She sits the violin back on the table and pulls the chair up to sit down, a smirk on her face.

“Did I prove my point?”

“Why the bass then? Had to follow in daddy’s footsteps in every possible way,” I shot back.

“Look here Clifford, I don’t give a shit about whatever the hell went down between our dads. Honestly all I know is that yours’ are gay and Michael is an ass, I only care about the second one. So why don’t you prove that you are an Irwin, by being the bigger person and leaving the family shit outside the door. I don’t want to be working with you either, so fuck off so we can get this God damn project done and not talk to each other ever,” she snapped back.

“Whatever, let’s just get to this, before I find an actual reason to dump food on you.” I say sitting back in my chair and starting to write out a few notes on a piece of sheet music. I realize just a bit too late what I said and know she’s not going to ignore it either.

“The fuck does that mean,” she interrogates.

Fuck.

“Well I was told after the fact that it was your brother that threw the milk on me. So I apologize for jumping to the conclusion and pouring the slushy on you. But any logical person would have questioned why I did it, not just dump hot soup on me, so you also owe me an apology.” Hopefully she’ll just accept the apology and we can move on. Then again my life doesn’t want to be that easy today.

 “To hell they would,” She screams. “No person would have questioned that! You were the one in the poison to question! You obviously pour fucking ice cold shit on me! There was no need to question! You didn’t question why I supposedly threw milk on you!”

Shit. Okay so really wasn’t expecting her to yell at me. I know most people would just say I’m sensitive, but I really can’t keep my shit together when someone yells at me. I just stare at the fretboard trying not to show any real emotions.

“You didn’t need to be so rude about it…” I mumble out.

“Oh because you are always so sweet. Whatever let’s just work on these damn songs. This months lesson is… Oh ‘working poetry into lyrics, start with something basic and make sure that every line set flows with the next. Start by writing poems about simple things, as the month progresses learn more about your partner and write the poems about them. Make it personal.’ Okay easy enough. We can learn about each other later. I’m leaving early for footie practice. Have fun playing with yourself,” She gets out before grabbing her things and walks out.

I let out a sniffle and wipe away a tear from my eye. I could feel myself starting to freak out and quickly reached for my bag. Of course I left my anxiety pills at home. Looks like I have to try and get over this attack the old fashion way. I sit on the floor with my head in my knees and spend the rest of the class period getting through my anxiety. I don’t realize that it’s after the bell till Blake comes into the room covered in dirt and sweat.

“Kels. Holy crap! Are you okay?” He kneels down to my level, but even still he’s a head taller. I stopped crying a bit ago, but my eyes must still be puffy.

“Yeah. Just royally fucked up as usual.”

“Anxiety attack?”

I just nod in response as he sits criss cross from me.

“You know Alexa and I always tell you to keep your pills with you. What happened?”

I rest my forehead back onto my knees trying to keep calm as I tell Blake about what happened in class. How Zortman was the biggest dick for pairing me with the one student who had a problem with. It wasn’t like the faculty and staff didn’t know about the Hoods and Cliffords; they did fund the school a lot. About how I put my foot in my mouth after I tried to smooth things over and she snapped and left. Just as I finished, Rich walked into the room.

“There you two are. I’ve been looking all over the school for you. We’re missing footie practice.”

I stood up and grabbed my bag and followed Rich and Blake out to the pitch bleachers. Rich was ahead of Blake and I so Blake used the distance to pick up the conversation.

“Kels, you need to try and end this fight with the Hoods. You and I both know that’s what’s best for everyone involved.”

“Yeah well I don’t think they want it to end,” I shot back shifting my bag on my back.

“If you’re talking about the lunch room, then forget about Marcus! I know MJ isn’t one to hold a grudge for long and I know she wants this to be over too. Remember, she was nice when you ran into Marcus.”

“Well if she wants this to be over she has a funny way of showing it.”

“Well you haven’t exactly been the nicest either,” he pointed out.

“Yeah,” I said in defeat. “I don’t know what it is, but whenever she says something I want to one up her. I think Dad got into my mind too much.”

“Looks like you need to rewire your brain. Maybe start with actually apologizing to her for how you’ve acted.”

“I guess. But only for you brother,” I joke.

He laughs because he knows that I actually do see him as my brother. That I think of all the Hemmings kids as my siblings. Rich and Blake were my brothers and Allison and Molly were my sisters. I grew up with them, practically shared a house with them since my Dads were either hanging with Luke or Luke was over at ours. Allison was my older sis who watched out for me when I grew up, Blake was my “twin” brother who I was always fighting with, Rich was my younger nosey brother, and little Molly was the baby who looked up to me. They were more my family than either of my real cousins were.

He slings his arm around me to give me a side hug and I squeeze his side. He hisses in pain and backs up a bit. I stop and watch as Blake lifts up his jersey to reveal a large bruise forming over his ribs and down to his hip. I look at him closer and notice he’s covered in scrapes and bruises. Rich doubled back to see why we were so slow and watched me look at his brother’s battered body.

“Okay, seriously,” I began. “WHAT THE FUCK IS RUGBY!?”

Blake just shrugs and continues towards the door to go out to the pitch, leaving Rich and I to look stunned after him.

We get into the bleachers just as the team is huddling up to be split for a practice game. Richard immediately becomes uninterested and opens up a book about pianos. My attention goes back to the pitch and my mind starts to wander about if I was on the team.

The thing about it was, I was actually really good at footie. I had a talent for it since I could kick a ball around. I taught Alexa how to play when her dads moved here and they didn’t have any other sports team. She begged me to join the school’s team when we started but I knew Michael wouldn’t let me. ‘No child of mine will be a part of that sport,’ is what he would say. He didn’t have to say that it was because Calum was a pro player; it was just known. I wasn’t even allowed to watch a game by myself for the longest time after my dad saw me cheering for Calum once when I was 6. I had to keep my passion a secret, only Alexa and Blake knew I still practiced at night when my dads went to sleep. I was damn good at the sport and my dad wouldn’t stop me from playing.

I watched each player and found their faults and strengths pretty easily. Most of the team was just lazy aside from Alexa and MJ. I tried to focus on Alexa so I knew what to help her with the next time she practiced, but I couldn’t stop looking at MJ. She was a killer keeper. She didn’t let any of the balls go into the net, even when the striker kicked one so fast I didn’t even have time to see where it was.

It wasn’t long till practice was over and the team was packing up and leaving the field to go home. Most of the team went to the locker room to shower before they left, but Alexa came jogging up to us with her bag over her shoulder ready to go. She and Blake start talking about something while Rich and I had our attention elsewhere. Down on the field, MJ was pouring water on herself to cool off. I saw Rich turn his head to look to me and I looked away from her before he started to ask questions.

I was knocked out of my shame by someone hitting me on the head. I look over and see Alexa with a very angry look on her face and Blake trying to calm her down. I rub my head where she hit me and glare back at her.

“No. You don’t get to be mad at me missy. Why would you antagonize MJ like that? No wonder she was so angry before practice,” Alexa lectured me.

I didn’t respond. I knew I was in the wrong; she knew I knew too. There was no way Blake left out about finding me after having a panic attack. I started to play with my hands, a habit I picked up to deal with my anxiety, and looked at the ground. Alexa grabbed my hands to get me to stop and made me look her in the eyes.

“You need to stop this feud. You know this isn’t healthy mentally for either of you. Especially you. You know that chicka. This needs to end, now.”

“I know,” I get out. Her tone wasn’t harsh, but forceful.

I took a breath and noticed Rich was no longer with us on the bleachers, but walking away with MJ towards the parking lot. I hugged Alexa and gathered my things before running off towards them to apologize. I got close enough to her and her bike that she could hear me. I called to her, but just as my voice started so did her bike; drowning me out. She turned around quickly and noticed me standing there, but revved her engine and sped off before I could have her stop. I watched her leave the school and I felt the sinking feeling of dread enter my body. Blake came up behind me to tell me to just wait till tomorrow. I knew it wouldn’t be that easy.

 


	6. Chapter 3: MJ

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was one of my favs to write, mainly for the jokes, but also for the heart to heart. Anyway for those of you wondering Melsie16 writes MJ's parts and Luke_The_Penguin_King95 writes Kelsie's parts. Anyway enjoy- Jeanine

I miss almost all of fifth period and so did Richard, since he was kind enough to wait for me outside of the locker room. We decide to skip the rest of it so we sat outside leaning against the wall for the last five or so minutes. “So how is your first day of school going? Are you getting along with all the other little boys and girls?” Richard asks still facing front. Without looking at each other we burst out laughing. His genuine, mainly because the boy doesn’t have bad bone in his body he is always genuine, while mine was nothing but sarcastic.

“Oh totally. I met this one girl and we get along so well that it would not be below her to run a spear through me to get attention then say I hurt her. And this one boy he wanted to fuck me and leave me. And this last girl has been trained like Pavlov's dog to want me dead. So yeah me and all the kids get along so well,” I counter with sarcasm and venom drip off every letter in every word. “God damn it! Why did my dad think that send me to the school that has not only basically every punk pop artist kids but also has the Clifford kid!? It is asking for a bad PR field day!” I scream stomping my feet and slamming my head against the wall we were resting against.

“Hey don’t be like that,” Richard cooed looking to me, sympathy and hurt in his eyes, “I get that there is a lot of media strain on your family but like everything it will blow over. And your dad originally didn’t want to send Marc and you here, Blake and I kinda pleaded that you do. I know it puts you in a bad place with the whole Clifford thing, but I missed my best friend. You know I don’t get with people that much and these last years have been hell. I got the Hemmings curse of all legs and no coordination. You being here it’s better than old times, I need my bfbf back,” He muses back to me, his soft voice calming almost as much as his brother’s. Hemo had a point. I had it easier because everyone in England loved my dad for winning, and then they loved my brother for being great at track, and finally they loved me for my ability to save the footie team and then hold my liquor at the after parties. But I knew better about Richard. From the looks I got over Skype whenever I tried to learn how he was actually doing, getting nothing more than a fine honestly I’m great you need to enjoy England, and the long calls that Blake would share with me telling me how everything was kinda going to shit for him. For kids like us the tabloids are hell, they find anything that they can pull at to get a reaction and for a kid in secondary school it just makes growing up that much worse.

I laugh and nudged his shoulder with a smile, “Yeah you always need your best fuck buddy forever around. I understand why you did it Richie. But I don’t know... you ever wish that you could change your family?”

He scoffs and gives me a knowing smile. “I still can’t believe that after dating for a year and a half you convinced me that that’s what we are. And you know I wish I could but then I remember that if I was or wasn’t a Hemmings I’m like the world’s biggest target.”

“One of those times was when we both our lost our virginity, and if you weren’t two and a half meters tall that wouldn’t be an issue.”

“You are such a bitch why do I bother putting up with you? I’m not that damn tall!”

“Love, you are close to being that damn tall, and because you love me deeply. As I recall very deep.”

“Holy shit you did not just make a comment about my dick size from two years ago.”

“Why, has it grown?” I ask leaning over and staring straight at his crotch. When my laughter finally dies down I think back to the long relationship Richard and I had. It started after I had moved to England, when we were 13- too young to date yeah yeah yeah- and lasted for about a year and a half. It might of gone better if we lived closer and I wasn’t such a shitty person in England. But during the relationship we had slept together several times, and of all the people I’ve been with Richard was still the best.

I’m brought out of my head space by Richard pushing me off his lap and laughs a little. “Stop it you perv, you aren’t getting in my pants again. I really have missed you, MJ. Now come on fifth ends in twenty seconds, we need to get to class,” He tells me as he stands pulling me with him and into a hug.

“You know that I wouldn’t trade my friendship with you for anything?” I ask, trying to reassure the fact that he does have me forever, hugging him back tightly.

“Yeah, Batgirl, same goes for you,” Hemo returned right as the bell rings. The halls become flooded with teens, some still slightly covered in food, rushing to get to their next class in the three minutes that we get in the hall. “I’ll meet you here after eighth period, before you run in for footie practice!” He shouted back to me as he ran to his next course.

I sigh and look down at the paper I pulled from my backpack and look at my last three courses. Sixth was resistance 3 with Mr. Lang, seventh with Mrs. Grogg in AP Calc, and finally advanced music with Mr. Zortman.

I got to the gym and changed quickly meeting the rest of my class in the weight room. The next hour of my life after that was hell. Mr. Lang pushed us over the edge, which was probably not a good idea since I have footie practice after this. But I had too much pent up anger from just today that I took it all out on the punching bag. After that I hopped in the girl’s locker room and shower for the second time today. I rush out and change, getting out of the locker room seconds after the bell ring. Calc went by quickly without any major events occurring. Luckily everyone seemed pretty chill with me being in the class, some gave me a back glance before whispering to their friend. Mrs. Grogg seemed to know what was happening for the most part and stopped the other kids before they started something, again.

It seemed to take forever but eighth period was finally here. I walk down the halls of the music wing and find room 705, Mr. Zortman’s class. I had heard about him from Richard first in Skype calls when he was taking advanced piano 3 and then once I got back. He was an older man with salt and pepper hair combed in a straight line across his forehead, he stood at 6”1’, broad shoulders, and thin but not really fit. His nose was almost a perfect right triangle, the other prominent feature was the ridiculous sweaters that he wore: that appeared to come straight out of a bad nineties thrift shop. He was known for being a great teacher as long as you did your work and didn’t fuck around in his room. Mr. Zortman had the natural ability to go from I’m-drop-dead-serious to I-am-the-queen-of-sass-and-you-just-threw-down-the gauntlet-be-prepared-to-battle in point six eight seconds flat. This was the one class that nothing could stop me from being excited for.

I take my seat in the back and plug in my headphones, turning up the volume on my phone and selecting Shinedown as the artist to play on repeat, 45 is the first song that starts playing. Hemo told me at the start of every class Zortman gives the students a few to just get out the school day stress. I bury my head into my arm and focus on the thumping of the drums and the slow strums of the guitar.

I’m pulled out of my little zone by the sound of a book dropping. I pause the song and pull out my headphones turning all my attention to Mr. Zortman. “Willkommen class, to advanced music. In here you will learn to perfect song writing, singing, and playing of an instrument. The final project will incorporate all of these; you will get the assignment now and work on it throughout the whole year. Then you will be made to perform your final produce in the cafeteria on the Coffee Shop Stage. The project is that you will be paired up with another student in this class. You must get to know them, learn about their families, their hobbies, their secrets, and then you must write and perform a song that you have written that is about the other student. Thanks to the surveys that you filled out before the start of school I have already been able to pair you all up. I will now read the list of names, they go in alphabetical order of the oldest partner,” He explained in a deep monotone voice. I realised that I was one of the younger kids in the class so I paid attention from the get go.

“Adders and Frost, Albright and Greyson, Backs and Ford, Beck and Swifter, Clifford-Irwin and Hood…” The last name set makes me tune all else out. Because no, no way in hell, no way in fucking god damn hell is she in this class. I tried being nice and she poured a fucking slushie on me. I search the room quickly but my eyes are drawn to her blue hair, Kelsie is already glaring at me. The hate and bitterness is rolling off her in waves. The second we make eye contact she makes a not so silent scoff, rolls her eyes, and turns back to Mr. Zortman. I can feel my blood boiling at the simple act. “Alright!” I hear pulling me out of my own space by Zortman’s booming voice, “those are all the pairs. And before anyone asks, the answer is no. You may not under any circumstance change partners. Now everyone pick up a syllabus and meet with your partner in one of the sound rooms in this room or one on the right or left of this.” With that he turns and walks back into his office and closes the door.

Everyone started gathering their bags and meeting with their now year long partners then claiming a studio room. I sat there frozen with my eyes fixed on Kelsie, who was sitting front row diagonal from me. She glared back then rolled her eyes. Slinging her bag over her shoulder and stood up, she walk for the door and almost turned the knob when she spun and glared at me. She waved her hand at me like an owner calling a dog over, then left. It was my turn to roll my eyes, none the less I picked up my bag and quickly followed her. I got into the hallway just in time to see her turn to the room next door. I get into the second class room and see her already tuning a guitar in the third studio room.

Huffing I walk over to the wall of instruments. It was one of the few perks of going to a school that had like very punk pop gods’ child going to it; the music program was A++. The wall was lined with everything from the triangle to Gibson Guitars. I look over everything and grab a violin and a shockingly blue lefty bass. I all but forced my dad to teach me and Uncle Luke taught me the guitar. I carried the two into the room where Kelsie impatiently waiting for me. She looked over the two things I had picked and squinted at me judgingly.

“Why the hell do you have a violin, you think you can use a violin to describe me?” She all but growled out to me. The guitar she has is an acoustic Luna parlor size from the Hena series. It was the dark brown one. It was a beautiful guitar, which she did not deserve to hold, let alone play. I pushed the thoughts of ripping it from her grasp and get back to her question.

“Honestly I don’t think there is anything awful enough to describe you in song. But the violin can be rocking,” I state simply, first she glares at me then raises a challenging eyebrow saying to me _oh, yeah prove it_. I sigh and position the violin on my shoulder, set my chin the rest and begin playing Lindsey Stirling’s Shadows.

I finish the song and set the violin on the table that is separating us, the only other things in there was the switchboard on the table, two hanging microphones, two amps, and two chairs. I drag the other chair over and sit down. “Did I prove my point?” I mock as I stare her down, her jaw is slightly open and hanging. It snaps shut at my comment and turns to the bass that is leaning up against the wall to my left.

“Why the bass then? Had to follow in daddy’s footsteps in every possible way?” Kelsie taunts, her smirk returning to her face as quickly as it faded.

At that I stand again, this time she stood with me. She was a good four inches shorter than me, and not as muscular, if it came to a fight I would win with little effort. “Look here Clifford, I don’t give a shit about whatever the hell went down between our dads. Honestly all I know is that yours’ are gay and Michael is an ass, I only care about the second one. So why don’t you prove that you are an Irwin, by being the bigger person and leaving the family shit outside the door. I don’t want to be working with you either, so fuck off so we can get this God damn project done and not talk to each other ever,” I snap, I see a flash of anger and fear in her eyes and that makes me smile on the inside. I have always had the ability to intimidate people who are either older or bigger. I call it a gift, Richard and Marcus call it a trait from Satan.

Kelsie sat back down and huffed, “Whatever, let’s just get to this, before I find an actual reason to dump food on you.”

I had all but calmed down till I heard that. An actual reason?? The fuck does that mean?! “The fuck does that mean?” I think out loud.

She looks up from the sheet music she was writing. Raised an eyebrow but answer the question with, “well I was told after the fact that it was your brother that threw the milk on me. So I apologize for jumping to the conclusion and pouring the slushy on you. But any logical person would have questioned why I did it, not just hot soup on me, so you also owe me an apology.”

All I could do was stare dumbfounded. Any logical person would have asked?? After getting sticky cold as fuck flavoured ice poured on them?! You have to be fucking with me! “To hell they would!” I explode, Kelsie looked slightly taken aback, “No person would have questioned that! You were the one in the poison to question! You obviously pour fucking ice cold shit on me! There was no need to question! You didn’t question why I supposedly threw milk on you!”

She just squirms in her chair and looks down at her hands at the fretboard. Good I hope she feels bad. “You didn’t need to be so rude about it…” She mumbles back not looking me in the face.

I couldn’t help the scoff that came out. “Oh because you are always so sweet. Whatever let’s just work on these damn songs. This months lesson is… Oh ‘working poetry into lyrics, start with something basic and make sure that every line set flows with the next. Start by writing poems about simple things, as the month progresses learn more about your partner and write the poems about them. Make it personal.’ Okay easy enough. We can learn about each other later. I’m leaving early for footie practice. Have fun playing with yourself,” I sneer grabbing the two instruments that I had brought in with me along with my bag and left.

I get to the girls locker room with my gear bag in hand again. I drop both on the bench and throw my head back and scream.

“Woah calm yourself kitty, no need to kill your vocal cords,” I hear someone chirp in. I spin quickly to see Alexa standing behind me with a wild grin on her face. “Something wrong little buddy?” I found the question because slightly ironic for two reasons. One I was a good four inches taller and thirty pounds heavier than her, and two she had met me twice before with a grand total of thirty minutes between the two so I wouldn’t say we were buddies.

I smile anyway, since she is the team captain and all, and give a tired nod. “Yeah your friend, Kelsie, kinda made my day a living hell, along with a few of the other students. But whatever I’ll make it through,” I get out as I turn back to my gear bag. I pull out all my underclothes. a tank top, spandex and a sports bra, then my socks, goalie jersey, goalie gloves with the Liverpool FC logo on them, shorts, shin guards, and cleats.

As I begin stripping out of my day clothes Alexa comes next to me with all her gear out and begins striping also. “Yeah, Kels gets really pissed sees only a target then tries to think of a half way decent excuse on why she did it. In the end she always feels bad and turns back to her normal. It’s kinda annoying but I still love her like a sister,” She explains.

I huff, I didn’t want to hear someone else’s excuses for her. So far my dad was on point for what a child raised by Michael would be raised like. We went silent after that, and the other girls slowly trickled in one by one. They bring noise and chaos but all get changed quickly and pumped for the first football practice of the year.

We exit the building through the doors that lead straight to the pitch. Alexa leads us in warm ups. First running two laps around the pitch, then stretches lead by her. That’s when I saw why she was the 13 year that got picked for captain. She had a strong voice that made you listen to her, also she just had this air about her that picked everyone up specially when she fell back to run with the slower girls on the laps even though she was obviously one of the faster girls. Coach call the meeting right after. Said that this week’s practices were just going to be games against ourselves. A simple 6 vs 6 each team getting one goalie. The players got in their preferred poisons, I was on Alexa’s team. She smiled up at the bleachers from the center circle, where she had kick off. I quickly look up to see Blake, covered in dirt, sweat, cuts, and bruises in his rugby uniform- they had practice during eighth period today since the coach had to leave early, Richie with his piano book in hand, and none other than Kelsie. I sigh and roll my eyes turning back to the game. Coach blew the whistle, starting the game. And like always I focused and went into footie mode for the next two hours.

I have no clear memories of what happened. It is always like watching a movie in fast forward, and from twenty feet away, a fast blurry image. We finish the practice, all I know is that I stopped two penalty kicks and every single shot on goal. We won three nothing and I was covered in sweat, grass, and mud. I’m gulping water down, trying to replace the lost water when Alexa comes bouncing up to me. “Hot damn child! I remember watching the film and thinking you were good but that was fan-fucking-tastic. The Liverpool team did you good,” She jeers merrily with a splitting smile, “Anyway I’ll catch you later! I have some people to meet with. Great practice ladies!” She yells the last part to the masses before grabbing her bag and sprinting over to Blake, who picks her up and kisses her, despite the grossness. I look over to Richie who is waving at me mouthing ‘I’m so riding with you!’ I can’t help the breathless laugh that escapes. I get similar praise from the other girls, and it makes me blush. I turn back to my stuff. Slowly pulling off my tank and goalie jersey as I dump the rest of my water on me. I get wolf whistles from the other girls and laugh with them after. I throw it all in my bag and grab my bags and motorcycle jacket and walk over to Hemo.

“Ready to go mate?” I ask cheerfully, happy to finally go home. He nods and waves bye to the others as we head to my bike.

“You were insane out there by the way. I know everyone else has already told you this but I have to add my two cents,” Hemo puts in. I smile and nod as a thank you but don’t say anything. He didn’t push the conversation, seeing that I didn’t really want to talk. It had been a long day and I was ready to go home.

We finally got to my bike. Despite me being all football gross, he hugged me tight and kissed the top of my head. Then let me go and pulled on his helmet and shoving my footie bag into the back seat compartment. I slipped into my jacket and helmet before swinging on the bike and starting it. Rich then got on after me. As I drove out of the lot I could feel someone watching me, and turned just in time to see Kelsie staring at me as I rode off **.**


	7. Chapter 4: Kelsie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The shit gets intense

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeeeeey lovely reader people!! Sorry this update is again a little late. You see we have some of them already written. We don't want to post them all at once because then you guys would be waiting forever for an update. Also I have started School again- yaaay :(- and she has gotten a new job so we are really busy but will keep writing!!!  
> Also for singing bits the just slanted is MJ, underlined is kelsie. both is both

I spent as much time trying to avoid running into MJ as I dropped off Blake as possible. I took Alexa home and even took Blake out for a milkshake before finally taking him home. He knew what I was trying to do, but didn’t talk about it. I really did want to stop this fighting, but there was just something about seeing her that stopped the rational part of my brain.

By the time I got home, it was almost 2 hours after practice had let out. I park my car and see I have 2 calls each from my dads. I grab my keys and try to act like the day wasn’t complete shit. I put on a stoic face and enter the house. I’m immediately greeted with the smell of chicken and other spices. I drop my keys on the stand by the door and make my way to the dining room. I see a cooked chicken set up on the table with veggies surrounding it.

“Look who’s finally home babe,” Michael shouts into the kitchen.

He’s sitting at the table with a bottle of beer already in front of him. I look and see another open beer assuming it was Ash’s. I look up to see Father poke his head out to see me then returns back to the kitchen only to emerge with a wine glass. I let a small smile out as I went to grab a bottle of white wine from the rack to fill my glass. I’m still only 17 so it’s still technically illegal for me to drink, but my dad’s let me drink with them on occasion.

I take a seat across from Dad just as Ashton comes in with a pan full of mashed potatoes. I took a sip of my wine and let Father cut some of the chicken into slices.

“Why are we having such a nice dinner tonight? Did someone die,” I question scooping some corn onto my plate.

“No one died,” Michael replied filling his plate. “Your father came home from work early and decided to be domestic. I like it, don’t question it.”

Father laughed at the last part and I just rolled my eyes. It wasn’t often that we all sat down together for diner. Usually I’d just make something to eat because Dad would be stuck at the music store or Father would have to meet with a band. It was a nice change of pace.

Just as Father was about to say something his phone went off.

“Hello. Ashton Clifford-Irwin speaking,” my Father answered in case it was a business call. Suddenly his face fell and he looked panicked. He left the table and Dad and I just watch after him. We share a look of confusion as we try to think of who could be calling to get that reaction. I listen closely and can hear his voice get angry, very angry. I’m notice him say our last names. He stops talking then his voice turn into something lower a quiet that I can’t pick up. I can tell Michael is having the same trouble making out what he’s saying; we both know it’s from too many times with loud music.

Not long after that Ash walks back in with a face I can only describe as stunned. I can’t think of anyone that could cause my Father to be stunned. It takes 2 tries for Dad to snap him out of his daze. His face goes from stunned to disappoint. My mind starts to race thinking the school called him to tell him about my detention. Before I can start to defend myself, Dad speaks up.

“Hun, who was that? I haven’t seen you look that scared since….,” He trailed off.

I didn’t have to think too hard to know he was referring to the event that caused Michael and Calum to stop being best friends. I didn’t know what happened exactly, I was able to piece together things from my dads and Uncle Luke, but all I could come up with was Calum hurt my Dad and he got him back.

Father paused a minute as if to think about what words to use.

“Well Michael. That was possibly the last person you’d ever want to hear from.”

I visibly saw Dad tense up. So it was Calum who called. But why? I looked over to Father and was met with his hazel eyes.

“Kelsie, why would you try and start anything with the Hoods? We told you to avoid them.”

“I didn’t try anything Father,” I started. “They started it.”

“They always start it,” I heard Michael growl under his breath. Ashton put his hand on Mike’s arm to try and calm him down. He turned back to look at me.

“What happened? And no lying, you know I can tell.” Ashton was right, he could tell if I lied. And I couldn’t leave anything out. I ran my fingers through my hair before meeting his eyes again.

“So basically Alexa asked me to get her napkins cause she had sauce on her face and when I went to get them, I was getting paint off my nails from art and I ran right into the boy, uh, Marcus, and he started talking trash saying about how Cliffords’ were clumsy and all this stuff and I said something and then MJ tried to be nice or whatever and I went and sat down and I dropped my journal when I ran into that jerk and while I was making sure everything was okay one of them threw milk at me and I thought it was MJ and got super mad so I poured my slushy on her and then she dumped her soup all over me and everyone started throwing food at each other and she left before any of the staff could see she started it so I got in trouble and got detention for it so I had to clean up and wear my school jersey all day,” I let out in one big sentence.

I can see Dad is torn between anger from the Hoods and amusement from me wearing the jersey and getting revenge. Father, however, was less impressed.

“That can’t be all that happened,” Father spoke.

“It’s not. So then I get to Zortman's class and you both know how I had to fill out that survey over break? Well he used it to pick partners for us for the entire year. Like same person all year round and HE PUTS ME WITH MJ! So I just try and get over it. I go to my music room so we can work on this project we have to do all year round and realize that we’re going to be partners all year so I might as well say sorry for the slush, but then I say she could have asked why and then she flips on me and started yelling at me and left me to go to footie practice and you both know how I get if I get screamed at so I started to have a panic attack and forgot my pills here and had to get over that and then Blake found me before we had to go watch practice for Alexa and he told me that I should try to apologize again but not say what she could have done and I said okay and when I went to go talk to her she drove off!” I take in a big breath and let it out to show I’m done talking.

Father is trying to think over what I just said, but Dad is redder than his hair.

“ZORTMAN! THAT MAN HAS ALWAYS HAD IT OUT FOR US! ASH YOU REMEMBER HOW HARD HE FOUGHT AGAINST US FOR PUTTING THAT ROOM IN THE SCHOOL FOR HER! HE KNOWS HOW MUCH I CAN’T STAND THE HOODS! HE’S DOING ALL THIS ON PURPOSE! I’M GOING TO CALL HIM AND GIVE HIM A FUCKING PIECE OF MY MIND!”

“MICHAEL YOU ARE YELLING AND WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE,” Father yelled back. I rarely ever heard Father yell. Michael has told me my Father has only had to scream a few amount of times. However it did stop my Dad’s fit. Ashton composed himself before speaking again.

“Kelsie, you are not under any circumstances allowed to agitate this feud any farther. Do you understand that?”

“Yes Father. I understand.” I stare down at my plate; even though I wasn’t yelled at the loud screaming caused my anxiety to spike a bit.

“And you sir,” Ash said turning to Michael. “Will do the same. No calls to the school. No more filling our daughter's head with this hatred. She is a young adult and she is capable of her own thoughts. If she can end this then it is for the better.”

“This won’t end till I get an honest apology for everything that dick has done to us,” Mikey said sternly. “I don’t care if Kels falls in love with one of them and wants me to walk her down the aisle, I won’t say one word to a Hood until there's an apology.”

I just roll my eyes. There’s no way I’d fall for one of the Hoods. Father was right though, I was old enough to make my own decisions and I’m deciding to try and cause as little fighting as possible. I can’t end the fighting, but I cannot add to it and maybe I can get the Hoods to agree to it.

The rest of dinner was kinda quiet from that point on. There was the usual ‘How was your day at work?’ and the news of what band was in the studio today and what new cds were coming out. I said about how Hodge didn’t want me to do my Doctor Who monologue again and they both just rolled their eyes.

To be honest, they didn’t know where my liking for older TV shows. I blame the internet mostly and Alexa. She’s the one that got me into the British shows like Sherlock and Doctor Who. I still can’t  wait for the 4th season of Sherlock to come out; they’ve pushed it back again, but Alexa and I really think it’s going to come out soon.

The rest of dinner passed by nicely and soon I was heading off to my room to waste away my time until I could get ready for bed and sleep. First things first, I needed a proper shower. I could still smell the clam chowder on my skin and my hair smelt faintly of spoiled milk. I discarded my clothes and showered. The entire time my mind was buzzing. I couldn’t stop thinking about this feud. If I hadn’t done it a million times before I would just google ‘Clifford Hood fight’, but every time the same articles would come up saying ‘5 SECONDS OF SUMMER BREAK UP AT THE TOP’ leaving me with even more questions.

As I’m getting dressed a new idea pops into my mind. I scrambled for my laptop and load up the search engine. I go to type but find it hard to press the right keys. I could possibly be breaking open Pandora’s Box here. I towel off my hair and brush it threw; mulling over this. I have to know. If I find out then maybe I can end this. I go back to my bed, lay on my stomach with my laptop in front of me, and type ‘Clifford Irwin relationship’. I remember Dad said ‘what he did to us’ so maybe Calum hurt my Father too.

My finger hits the enter button and within a second I’m staring at a bunch of new articles that date back 20 years. The first one reads ‘5SOS GUITARIST AND DRUMMER IN RELATIONSHIP’ with others just talking about them getting engaged or married. I skimmed through all them and the only new information I could get was that all these stories vaguely mention the fight with Michael and Calum and then Ashton stating he’s been in love with my dad for a while.

There are some pictures with the articles though and they give more hints than the writing. Some show Michael and Ashton are what look to be a party of some sort and they are both dressed very nicely; as if they are posing for a group photo. Some show Michael covering his face with his hands and he’s in just a pair of dress pants (which basically you have to force him into anything suit related). However, there is one that shows way more. It’s attached to one article that is really rubbish, but the picture is of Michael in his dress pants with his back turned to whoever was taking the pictures with Uncle Luke holding him back. Ashton is in the picture too and he looks so scared, you can tell his eyes are wide even from the crappy quality of the camera, and his dress shirt is unbuttoned and pulled out of his pants and he’s backing away from Luke and Mikey. I almost over looked another person, barely out of the picture. Calum is there too, halfway between where Dad and Father are, hidden mostly behind a wall. He’s doubled over holding his stomach like he’s laughing too hard. It’s strange because based on everyone else’s body language, the events taking place are serious; life changing even.

I look at my clock and notice its way later than I’d like for it to be. I close the window and shut down my computer. I switch off the light and have my music on to play songs to help me sleep. I lay there in the darkness trying to figure out what could have been happening in those pictures. When I finally fall asleep, it’s sudden, like my laptop shutting off.

When my alarm finally wakes me up I realize I’ve slept through my first 2 alarms which means I barely have time to grab a piece of toast before I have to run out of the house. I yank a pair of bleached jeans from the closet and grab a T-shirt from my clean clothes pile. I brush my teeth quickly and run down the stairs and try to pull on my boots while I spread vegemite on a piece of toast. I grab my bag and plop myself in the car. I look at my phone and notice I was ready in less than 10 minutes and I had a text from Blake saying he was running behind. If he makes us late again on the second day of school I swear I’ll find the family of rabbits that attacked him and Rich last year and let them go crazy.

I drive to Alexa’s and am greeted with none other than Jack Barakat in nothing but a pair of boxers and bunny slippers getting the post. Sure it was weird that my favorite musicians were my best friends’ parents, but I got over seeing them fairly quickly so the initial fan-girl moments were gone. Now I mostly joked around with them and they treated me like an estranged child whenever I would be in their house.

Jack saw me pull up and thought it would be funny to pretend to get hit by my car as I parked.  He slams both his hands on the hood of my car and screams. It wasn’t the first time he’s tried this and I knew the response he was looking for.

“OI! THE FOOK YOU THINK YOU’RE DOIN’ MATE,” I screamed from inside the car, my “accent” becoming very theatrical.

“WATCH WHERE YOU’RE GOING MATE,” he shouts back, a smile very prominently shown on his face.

“YOU WANNA FOOKIN’ GO MATE?! I’LL RIP YER FOOKIN’ EAD OFF!”

We both laugh and I exit the car to give him a hug. We must have been loud because soon Alexa is running out of the house with her bags and her father waving from the front door.

“HEY KELS! KEEP IT DOWN! WE HAVE NEIGHBORS,” Alex shouts from the entryway.

“YOU GOT IT ALEX!” I enter the driver seat and wait for Jack to very slowly move from in front of me before I drive off to get Blake.

When I pull up to Blake’s, he dives into the back seat and I speed off to school so we aren’t late. Blake gets situated in the back and buckles his seatbelt before he starts talking.

“Party. My house. Friday after we win the football game.” Is what he first says.

“Hell yeah I’m in,” Alexa says. “I’ll tell the team.”

“If the team is going then count me out,” I say making a turn.

“And why is that,” Alexa asks.

“Cause the Hoods will be there and I told Father I wouldn’t cause trouble.”

“Please Kels! I want you to DJ. No one knows mood music like you do! Plus you always DJ for these parties,” Blake begs.

“No. I won’t go and that’s that.” I pull into the school and let my friends get out so I can grab my things before we enter the school. Of course I want to go to the party and DJ, music is my life, but I can’t cause any more trouble. My plan is to just interact with MJ only when I need to for music class and to just avoid Marcus altogether.

All my classes kinda blurred together before lunch, even art. Mr. Howard could tell I wasn’t fully there so he let me leave class a few minutes early to take a walk and try to collect myself. It wasn’t like I had anything to think about, well that’s a lie. I was trying to sort through the pictures from last night still. Trying to find a backstory, but I kept coming up empty. I heard the bell for lunch and started making my way to meet Alexa and Blake.

I find them standing across the hall from the lunch room and can hear a lot of noise coming from inside. It’s Tuesday so no doubt someone is on the Coffeeshop Stage. I can make out someone rapping to a song, but I can’t quite tell what song it is; only that the words are being spoken very fast. I look over and see the couple acting very cute with each other and I let out a fake gag noise as I approach them.

“Gross. Cooties,” I comment.

“Hey, you wanted these cooties at one point,” Blake points out, obviously referring to when we were both younger. Around the end of primary school we may have danced around liking each other, but it was just schoolyard crushes. Mostly the result of always being near one another.

“Yeah, worst mistake of my life,” I joke back. “Plus the Fuentes cousins kiss better than you did.”

“It was my first kiss, you weren’t any better,” Blake joked back.

“It was my first kiss,” I mocked back laughing.

“Alexa likes my kisses. Don’t you babe,” Blake questioned turning his head to look at Alexa.

“Eh,” was all she said in reply. I couldn't help but double over with laughter at the look of fake hurt on Blake’s face. The hurt morphed into determination as he attacked Alexa’s face with kisses.

“Come on lovebirds, lunch time,” I say recovering from my laughter fit and making my way to the cafe.

I was practically hit with a wall of beautiful music. I stopped dead in my tracks as I heard someone playing Nearly Witches by Panic at the Disco, one of my favorite songs by them. The beginning part that was in French was just ending and the beat was picking up. I didn’t even know my eyes were closed, as I was taking in the music, until I felt a hand on my shoulder. Not one to get my attention, but one to try and hold me back. The chorus started and I looked over to Alexa and she had a worried look on her face. I turn to look at the stage and see none other than MJ performing. I was pissed. The song wasn’t beautiful anymore. I was finding every single mistake with the performance that I could. How she almost missed the second verse because she was too focused on Rich. I was fuming by the time she was over and practically being carried off the stage.

I ran for the stage and flung my bag to the ground and asked if the drummer, bassist, and guitarist knew Heroes by All Time Low. They all nodded. I waited for everyone to notice that I was on stage before I signaled for the band to start. The guitar started up as I scanned the crowed and my eyes landed on MJ, Rich, and Marcus. They looked stunned. I could see they were talking quickly as the rest of the band started to play. I see Rich try and hold her back, then Marcus push her to the stage as I sing out the first line.

Not gonna miss you when you’re dead and gone.

She jumped on stage, grabbed a guitar, and started playing right along with us.

Not gonna talk about you over and over and over.

Not gonna file you under latest nostalgia, not happily ever after.

Not gonna listen to your played out songs (played out songs).

Don't wanna think about you over and over and over.

Not gonna read about the latest fads on your trendy blog,

I want nothin' to do with that.

'Cause you've made a mess of everything

(And I’m not listening)

She stands behind the extra mic to sing the backup vocals and I’m putting every emotion I have into this. She jumps off the stage and starts walking around the room to show how great she is at playing. I point to her as the chorus comes to show that the lyrics are aimed right for her.

You're not a hero, you're a liar.

You're not a savior, you're a vampire.

Sucking the life out of all the friends you've ever known.

You're just a trainwreck, not a winner.

Up on your soap box preaching down to the sinners.

A saint without a cause, we're not listening, we're not listening.

I'm gonna a start a revolution,

Of convoluted disillusion.

(Start a revolution)

I'll lead a war with no conclusion,

And in the final hour I'll be a confident coward.

'Cause if we stand for nothing, we'll fall for anything.

I finish the verse and I look out too see her walking down a long table.

You're not a hero, you're a liar.

You're not a savior, you're a vampire.

Sucking the life out of all the friends you've ever known.

You're just a trainwreck, not a winner.

Up on your soap box preaching down to the sinners.

A saint without a cause, we're not listening, we're not listening.

The instrumental starts and MJ starts to play up how well she plays. I can’t even see straight with how mad I am. Luckily my favorite part of the song was coming up. I open my mouth and before I can sing, she starts.

_Now this is moving in the same direction,_

_But I'm a little too spent to care._

_'Cause it's a battlefield 'til it blows over,_

_Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer._

I was taken back. She didn’t even have a mic in front of her, she was practically chanting the lyrics out loud and clear. The crowd in front of the stage split as she made her way back, still “singing”.

_We're throwing stones though we live in glass houses._

_We talk shit like it's a cross to bare._

_You're only relevant until you get older,_

_Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer (enemies closer)_

She’s back on the stage now and I’m so stunned that when the chorus comes back, I don’t have time to react before she’s in front of my mic singing.

_They're gonna miss me when I'm dead and gone._

_They're gonna talk about me over and over and over._

_They're gonna file me under latest nostalgia, happily ever after._

_I snap back and grab the spare mic to finish out the song with her._

_But I'm not a hero, I'm a liar._

_I'm not a savior, I'm a vampire._

_Sucking the life out of all the friends I've ever known._

_We're a trainwreck, not winners._

_On a soap box preaching down to the sinners._

_Saints without a cause, we're not listening, we're not listening,_

_We're not listening, we're not listening._

_The song ends and MJ comes up to me with a deadly look in her eyes._

“You don’t know what you’ve started, best to back the fuck off,” she says into my ear before she gives back the guitar and walks off the stage.

I grab my bag and storm off the stage. I don’t even really notice the people congratulating me and I barely register Alexa and Blake calling to me. I push past the double doors into the hallway and don’t stop till I accidentally run into someone. Luckily, it was Hodge.

“That was quite a performance Kels. Such passion. I’ve only ever seen that from you when you perform.”

“Thanks Hodge,” I say with an obvious “grump” to my voice.

“I do hope you get something to eat before we perform in class today. Better go to a vending machine,” he hints before walking back towards his room down the hall. I must have been walking to his room subconsciously. I didn’t notice either of my friends coming after me, I must have scared them. I turn around and go buy a bag of chips and a soda before I have to go to class.

The rest of the day passes in a bit of a blur. I buzz through my monologue, which I changed to something from Shakespeare, and my other classes were just gray. The entire time, Father’s voice was in my head. ‘Kelsie, you are not under any circumstances allowed to agitate this feud any farther. Do you understand that?’ I had to go back to my plan of just ignoring them.

I was walking into music when Mr. Zortman stopped me at the door.

“Good Morning Miss. Clifford-Irwin,” He said a little too happily.

“Uh, Good Morning Mr. Zortman,” I questioned back. I remembered Alexa saying he likes to do this sometimes, that even though it’s clearly the afternoon he will say morning and vice versa. He just smiles at my response.

“That was quite a performance today at lunch. You and Miss. Hood work well together.”

“Thank you sir,” I fake sincerity. I enter the room and notice MJ isn’t there yet. I take a seat and wait for her to enter. Once she finally does arrive, I’m waiting for her at her desk. I can tell she a bit wary of my presence and my smile that I have on my face is fake and we both know it.

“Hello partner. I don’t really want to deal with you this week, so we are going to work on the first small assignment. Which is finding a song that we think describes our partners at first glance, that the partner will then sing. Its due Monday. Have fun,” I say all too chipper. I walk back to my seat and let Mr. Zortman start the class hoping the rest of the week is as stress free as possible.


	8. Chapter 4: MJ

I dropped Rich off and before he could tell me anything I sped off back home. I park in the car park seeing that Marc was already home. Once I get in the actual house I drop my bags at the door and scream. There is one of my dad’s footballs sitting near the door and I kick it with all my might. Marc then has the bad time to stand up from under the counter to ask what happened in time to get nailed with the ball. Dad comes running as the ball bounces off Marcus and is about to hit him, but he uses his knees and gets control of the ball before holding onto it with his hands.

“What's wrong love? And why are you hitting your brother with my favorite ball?” My dad asks as he walks over to Marcus checking his head, it's turning bright red but look like he would be fine. Dad motions for him to go put some ice on it.

I look my dad over quickly. He’s in his everyday attire of skinny jeans and a band singlet, even at 40 some habits don’t die. He’s not like me covered in sweat and dirt from a football field, instead he’s clean telling me that he’s been home for a while. “I thought you had a practice today. Why are you home?” I ask harshly avoiding the question.

Calum rolls his eyes, acting like a teenager himself, and sighs. “I did have work but we don’t practice for nine hours or something. We practiced for three then I had a short meeting, got home by one… Wait you are the child here. You don’t get to interrogate me, that’s my job. So again why are you so mad?” He replies look between my brother and I, trying to figure out when he became the child.

“She’s all pissing because Clifford dumped an icee on her at lunch,” Marcus sneers as he presses a bag of ice to his head, flinching slightly at the pressure. My father turns to gape at my brother as I glare at him for spilling my secret. “And then she got stuck with her in music class to be her all year partner,” He continued now smirking.

“That’s it I’m call the school and forcing them to separate you two! I knew Michael’s kid would fuck up your life somehow the moment I learned that she went to that school!” My father screams as he marches to the land line that is connected to the wall.

I run over and put my hand on the phone preventing him from making the call. He had a mix of anger and confusion showing clear on his face. “She thought I threw chocolate milk on her, when it was actually Marcus. Also working with her won’t be too bad, I’ll manage my mental stability,” I say soothing my father.

He turns to glare at my brother who is trying not to look too guilty. “Why did you throw chocolate milk on her?” My father barks.

“Because she ran into me!”

“She was going to apologize!”

“Shut up sis!”

“Then stop being such a prick! I wouldn’t have to call you out on it then!”

“That is more than enough from the both of you!” Calum yells slamming his hand down on the tabletop in front of him, it causes Marcus and I to jump and be silenced. “I get that being near someone that does not like our family is difficult, but you will learn to deal and survive. MJ go upstairs shower and finish your homework, if you have any. Marcus just go to your room. Supper will be ready in an hour,” My father continues almost too calmly. We scurry off as fast as possible. When I get to the staircase after retrieving my bag from beside the door I turn and see my father. He is rubbing his temple seeming to have aged fifteen years in fifteen seconds, it’s terrifying to see. I slowly walk back to him and hug him gently.

“We’ll be okay daddy. I promise we won’t fight with Kelsie anymore. I’m sorry for everything that has been happening to you,” I whisper reassuringly into his shoulder seeing as that’s as far as I reach on him.

He turns and drops a kiss on my head. “I know love, it’s just hitting me all at once. But don’t trouble yourself with my problems, go and shower. I have to start dinner,” He whispered back but he didn’t really seem to put any effort or force into the words. Like he was trying to convince himself more than me.

I nod anyway and head upstairs to where my bathroom is. I’m met with my brother at the top. He hugs me tight and whispers an apology into my hair. I nod and squirm out and take the extra two steps into the bathroom and lock the door.

I look myself in the mirror for the first time since the locker room with Alexa god I look like a pile of shit. I’m covered in grass and mud, my hair is sticking out of its braid in all directions. I just sigh; I had given up on my appearance years ago. I turn to the shower and turn the water on, running it hot enough to burn skin. I peel off my clothes piece by piece and scan my body again. I get caught up on the scars from too many bad parties, which I honestly should have never been near, back at Bromsgrove. The school population had a different idea of fun when it came to the female athletes. I skim my hand over the small burn of a cigarette that one of the guys caused at my first party, then up the line of similar burns from every party. No one knows about them, dad would have murdered the school board had he found out.

I shudder at the thought and then the hazy memories that I can never fully pull together. I turn away from the mirror and step in the shower and relish in the scalding water. I hiss as it pelts my skin but don’t dare turn it down. This is how I deal with my shit, burn and scrub off a layer or so of skin in the shower and I’m all good.

About a half hour later I’m done and rushing to my room to put on clean clothes. I find my I Prefer the Drummer long sleeve black shirt and my Ravenclaw sweat pants and slip into them quickly. I throw my hair up into the worst bun ever and go down stairs.

When I reach the living room I can hear my dad on the phone, I slip behind the wall and listen a little closer.

“Umm hey man… No umm Luke gave me the number…. I know I’ve been shit to you for almost two decades…. Well can you fucking blame me for bailing after what he did?! I was pissed out of my mind Ash, he was just being a douche… I know he was my friend for ten years, but he ruined it in ten seconds…. Look mate… Fine I get it we aren’t really friends anymore…. No Ashton that’s not what I meant and you know it…. Look Irwin.... fine Clifford-Irwin I called for a reason, it has to do with my daughter… I wish you could meet her too, maybe one day… Right… I just wanted to ask if you can get Kelsie to tone it down a notch, my kids haven’t had it easy the past few months and I’m running on empty at the moment. I can’t handle anything else at the moment, honestly neither can they… Yeah I get it, that’s Michael for ya…. Yeah thanks anyway… Sure maybe someday…. Wait Ash I need to say that- never mind. I’ll see you round… Yeah bye.” With that he goes silent for a minute. I can see my dad glaring down at the phone. I lean a little more to see him rub his hand over his face while muttering, “I need to say that I never had a problem with you and Mike, just the pain I could see on his face at the time.”

I swing back behind the wall and walk up a few steps, stomping loudly down them. “Hey dad,” I say with a fake smile as I reenter the kitchen. He doesn’t say anything just smiles and nods at me not saying anything. “Dad please go get some rest, I’ll cook dinner. And don’t put on that whole, ‘I am the father and I provide for you’ act because life has been more than hell on you,” I push leaning next to him on the counter.

He looks me over with a faint smile on his lips, and squeezes my hand. “Where the hell did you get that from. It had to be Luke, but it’s seems more like….” My dad confesses, trailing off at the end. I still could hear the silent Ashton hanging at the end. “I’m gonna go to bed. Love you hun, I’ll see you tomorrow morning, don’t stay up to late,” he adds, placing a light kiss on my forehead walking off down the hall to his room.

When Cal is gone I turn to the cupboard and find a box instant mac and cheese, pour the water and microwave it. Once I have it split in two separate meals I start eating sitting on the counter. As if on cue Marcus comes down the stairs and stares between the bowls of mac and cheese and me. Eventually he grabs the bowl set aside for him and begins eating. “You made dad go to bed so he may finally get colour back in his face right?” Marcus asks casually not look at me but reading something on his phone while eating instead.

“He needs it. One man can only deal with so much before he starts killing people,” I say just as calm, I look him over as I talk though.

“Well maybe he’ll start with the Cliffords,” Marcus mumbles under his breath still not looking up at me.

My head snaps up, and he appears to feel my gaze burning him because he looks up too, but raises an eyebrow. “Do you know what happened between dad and Michael? I know they had a huge fight but like how did it start?” I ask.

This caused Marc to finally look up. He had realisation in his eyes. I continue to stare at him as he thinks. Finally after a minute of silence I get, “once when I was like thirteen I saw Michael and Ashton on TV. The news reporter then linked them to dad, I asked who they were and he said his old best friends that he doesn’t talk to. I asked why he said some bull shit about how when they were like nineteen or something he told the world Michael’s secret, then to get him back Michael spilled something of his."

I lean back on the counter and think out loud, "they were teens what big secrets did they have?" I look to my brother and he just shrugs going back to his Mac and cheese.

It's a while later, after we have both finished and have started cleaning up that he breaks the semi-permanent silence we have fallen into. "I don't know what really happened between Michael and dad. All I do know is don't push him on it. He has so much other shit to deal with, don't bring back hurtful memories of the past," Marc warns me sternly, glaring down at me the whole time that he's talking.

All I can do is scoff, I see him cock an eyebrow in confusion at it. "Like you actually care about him half the time. You always love mom more, I bet even now," I hum in indifference. I won't bring up Michael to dad of course, but my brother has no right to scold me.

"Listen you are right I never got on the best with dad, you were always there to steal the spotlight. But if you think for a second that I like seeing him like this then you are a stupid bitch just like mom. If I loved mom more, I would still be in London with her and have the Premier League. Our mom is a whore, and I hate her more than almost anyone," he spews as he turns for the stairs.

I let his words process before saying anything. "Almost anything?" I question when he reaches the bottom of the stairs.

Marcus turns and looks at me while saying shortly, "that cliff bitch is getting up there. Night MJ!"

I shake my head in disbelief at the fact that I'm related to him. If I didn't look so much like Calum I might question that too. I walk up the stairs to my room and land heavy on my bed staring up at my ceiling. The day's event still replaying in my head. I sigh in frustration and get up from my bed and go to my dress draw. I dig around a bit till I find my sleeping pills and take two. Throwing the bottle back in the draw I step to my bed and lay back on top of the covers. I was out in five minutes.

The next morning when I woke up my dad was already gone and Marcus was still asleep since he didn't need to be at school till 10. I shower quickly and put gel in my hair trying to keep the puff part of curly hair down. I throw on a matching pair of lace thong and bra, my red and black acid wash shorts, and one of my dad's old footie jerseys he gave me. I send Richard a text that says I'll be over in ten and head down stairs.

I quickly eat some Vegimite toast and a cola before grabbing my bag, keys, and helmet then rush out the door. I tug on my jacket once I put my bag into the spare compartment under the seat. With my helmet on I head down the street to Hemo's.

The trip only takes a minute. I park the bike on the curb and set my helmet on the seat and go to the door. I knock and the door is pulled open by a Luke Hemmings screaming, "boys I swear to God and all that is mighty in this world if you are late on your second day of school I will kill you with no regrets! It is not happening for a fifth time!" He turns to look at me with a giant smile. "MJ Hood, it has been too long and you look far more attractive than either of your parents," he rushed while laughing and pulling me into a hug, "sadly I have to run to work. But you and your family are coming over Sunday no question asked. Love you girly, boys do not be late for fucks sake!" Luke then quickly runs down to his car.

"It was great seeing you too, Uncle Luke! We will talk more on Sunday!"  I shout as he pulls out of the car park and down the road waving out the window. I turn back to the door to see a flustered Richard and amused Blake behind him, both panting heavily. "So you guys were late to the second day four times?"

"Not now MJ, we can talk about at school. Right now we really can't make it a fifth time," Richard rushes as he shoves me out the door and to the bike. I laugh almost the entire way there.

"Wait so you hit a bunny, cried about, the got attacked by its family, causing you to be late?" I ask Rich as we enter the school. I had just heard the retelling of how he and Blake were late before on the second day of school, which also turned out to be why Luke doesn't trust them to drive to school anymore. He nods embarrassed as we reach my locker. "Mate, that take a type of skill I'm so glad I don't have," I wheeze out while laughing.

He goes to make a snarky comment back when the final bell rings. He rolls his eyes knowing he has made it in the clear just yet for not being late. "I'll see you at lunch, don't kill anyone just yet," he warns while speed walking to homeroom. I know when he says anyone he means Kelsie. Lucky for me I don't have to see her till lunch either.

The first half of the day went too quickly. All my classes were quiet after hearing about the food fight yesterday and flipping in psych. I got a few glares but those were easy to ignore. In psych I got a few rude whispers from Maria but that was it, also I noticed her friend wasn't there and I couldn't help but smile at that.

I find Rich waiting by my locker like yesterday, but this time Marcus wasn't there. I raise my eyebrow silently asking about my brother's location. "He went ahead with some old friends, so it's just you and me today," he responds quickly, the last part is sad and quiet.

I reach forward and squeeze his hand in mine, giving Richard a reassuring smile. "Perfect I don't want it any other way, come on Hemo I want food," I agree smoothly, happy to be with just my best friend.

We get to the cafeteria and the stage that was filled with instruments yesterday is filled with people and instruments today. There is a small crowd surrounding the stage dancing to the music. There are two girls up front singing into mics while a band plays the music, I recognize the song as "Bang Bang". "Okay what is that thing?" I ask sharply to Richard but don't face him, I couldn't pull my eyes from the stage.

"It's the Coffee Shop Stage, on any day but Wednesday you can go up and perform a song. The music classes sometime have to perform for a grade. But it was donated by Jalex," Richard explains as we walk closer, both being drawn in by the music. I have met Jack and Alex Barakat once in my life. I have met and hung out with Zack a hundred times, it must be a bassist thing because him and my dad are beyond close.

"What are they going to do when the rap comes?" I ask as I hear that they are at the end of the second verse.

"You could do it."

"No."

"You want to," Richard teases, and he was right. I love rapping it was fun fluid. But here was not the place to do it. "Come on MJ, you rap and I'll go play piano with you." This was a huge step because he hates playing in public.

I sigh and push my way up to the stage and pull myself on to it. I nod to the girls there and take the mic that was still on its stand, flip the switch and hold it to my face. There was one line left in the song, I let it flow before I start,

_"It's Myx Moscato It's frizz in a bottle It's Nicki full throttle, it's oh, oh Swimming in the grotto We winning in the lotto We dipping in the pot of blue foam Kitten so good It's dripping on wood Get a ride in the engine that could Go, Batman robbin' it Bang, bang, cockin' it Queen Nicki dominant, prominent It's me, Jessie, and Ari If they test me they sorry Riders look like a Harley Then pull off in this Ferrari If he hanging we banging Phone ranging, he slanging It ain't karaoke night but get the mic 'cause he singing," I go quick and solid, hitting every syllable. The crowd whistles and cheers as the other two finish up the last chorus._

I smile at the other two and tell them they are great, and they were. I turn to the band after the others have gotten off stage. “Do you guys know “Nearly Witches by Panic at the Disco?” I ask in a timid voice. They nod, and I smile. “Cool, but I’m going to play the bass part if that’s cool,” I tell directly to the bassist. He simply nods, takes off his bass, and shows me to where all of the others are lined up perfectly. I pick up the beautiful red one that has a great big black X right under the pickup board.

I turn back to the crowd still hovering around the stage, waiting for the next song, and wave Richard. I see him roll his eyes and jog up the stage to the piano.

He gives me a small nod, telling me that he was about to start the first chord telling me to sing the opener.

_Dès le premier jour, ton parfum enivra mon amour_

_Et dans ces instants_

_J'aimerais être comme toi par moments_

_Mais depuis ce jour_

_Je n'ai qu'un seul et unique regret_

After I finish the opener the beat kicks in and the girl play guitar to my right begins strumming after the piano solo, I kick in with her stepping away from the mic and going to face her. We face each other and play each part smoothly. We all play the short instrumental. As the instrumental comes to a close I walk back to the mic readying to sing the whole song.

_My wing tips waltz across naive wood floors._

_They creak innocently down the stairs._

_Drag melody._

_My percussive feet serve cobweb headaches._

_As a matching set of marching clocks._

_The slumbering apparitions,_

_That they've come to wake up._

_Here I am, composing a burlesque,_

_Out of where they rest their necks._

_Sunken in their splintered cradles,_

_And ramshackle heads._

_They ask for it._

_As a girl, you have set your heart on_

_Haunting me forever from the start._

_It's never silent._

We are about to enter the chorus when I make eye contact with a very pissed off Kelsie Irwin-Clifford. She is glaring me down as if I just killed her favourite pet, and then laughed when she found out. I pull my gaze away from her vulture like stare.

_Ever since we met,_

_I only shoot up with your perfume._

_It's the only thing that makes me feel as good as you do._

_Ever since we met,_

_I've got just one regret to live through._

_And that one regret is you._

During the break of the singing I step back from the mic again. Playing it up with Rich as he pretends to have a hard time playing the song. He sees me out of the corner of his eye and decides to play it up with me. I realise I am supposed to jump in with lyrics with only a second to spare and rush to the mic, making it barely to jump in at the right time.

_How does a heart love_

_If no one has noticed its presence?_

_And where does it go?_

_Trembling hands play my heart like a drum,_

_But the beat's gotten lost in the show._

_You have set your heart on_

_Haunting me forever from the start._

_It's never silent._

_Ever since we met,_

_I only shoot up with your perfume._

_It's the only thing that makes me feel as good as you do._

_Ever since we met,_

_I've got just one regret to live through._

_And I regret never letting you know!_

_Ever since we met,_

_I only shoot up with your perfume._

_It's the only thing that makes me feel as good as you do._

_Ever since we met,_

_I've got just one regret to live through._

_And that one regret is you._

       We finish the song as I turn to Rich. He’s just smiling. I hand the bass back to the original bassist, grab Rich’s hand, jump off the stage. I spot Marc as soon as we get off the stage. He waves over, once we reach him he pulls me into a hug. “Way to sing brat, you don’t totally suck,” He half compliments as he rubs my hair. I shove him off me and flip him off as Richard just laughs.

       I go to say something when I hear the beat and guitar kick back up. I turn around to see Kelsie up on stage smirking right at me. “No fucking way,” I whisper in disbelief the second I recognise the song to be Heroes by All Time Low.

       “MJ, don’t do whatever you are thinking about doing,” Richard pleads as he grabs my shoulder.

       Marcus grabs him off and lightly pushes me towards the stage saying, “Do whatever you have to sis.”

       I smile at the encouragement from my brother and start walking to the stage. The intro is just about to end when I reach the stage.

       Not gonna miss you when you’re dead gone.

       As she sings the first line still glaring at me I pick up the only lefty electric guitar and play the lead part. Still looking her in the eyes as she continues.

       Not gonna talk about you over and over and over.

Not gonna file you under latest nostalgia, not happily ever after.

Not gonna listen to your played out songs (played out songs).

Don't wanna think about you over and over and over.

Not gonna read about the latest fads on your trendy blog,

I want nothin' to do with that.

'Cause you've made a mess of everything

(And I’m not listening)

       I jump in on the back up singing into the spare mic, before heading out the tables that are spread out in the cafeteria, Luckily it was a bluetooth set up to the amp, so I could walk were ever. As Kelsie was singing the first verse her eyes never left me, and venom seeped into every lyric.

       You're not a hero, you're a liar.

You're not a savior, you're a vampire.

Sucking the life out of all the friends you've ever known.

You're just a trainwreck, not a winner.

Up on your soap box preaching down to the sinners.

A saint without a cause, we're not listening, we're not listening.

       She points at me when the chorus comes, making it more like we were having an angry fight. Everyone in the cafe was both pumped and confused by the display. I smiled then made a shocked face, pretending to be surprised that she was talking about me.

       I'm gonna a start a revolution,

Of convoluted disillusion.

(Start a revolution)

I'll lead a war with no conclusion,

And in the final hour I'll be a confident coward.

'Cause if we stand for nothing, we'll fall for anything.

       Right before the chorus kicks in I jump up on the nearest table and start walking up and down it. I get a bunch of whistles and claps from everyone. I turn to see Rich with a worried expression and Marc smiling a bit too wide.

You're not a hero, you're a liar.

You're not a savior, you're a vampire.

Sucking the life out of all the friends you've ever known.

You're just a trainwreck, not a winner.

Up on your soap box preaching down to the sinners.

A saint without a cause, we're not listening, we're not listening.

       When the instrumental comes I turn around and play up the fact that I’m boss at guitar. I smile devilishly at Kelsie, who is just getting more pissed with every passing second. I start walking back to the end of the table. The bridge comes and Kelsie goes to sing again, luckily I have time to cut her off before she can.

_Now this is moving in the same direction,_

_But I'm a little too spent to care._

_'Cause it's a battlefield 'til it blows over,_

_Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer._

       I jump off the table and the crowd around the stage splits. I walk straight up to Kelsie as I finish the bridge.

_We're throwing stones though we live in glass houses._

_We talk shit like it's a cross to bare._

_You're only relevant until you get older,_

Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer (enemies closer).

       I’m finally back on the stage and at Kelsie and her mic, she takes a step away from it too dazed to know what’s going on. I take a step to the mic and sing the next part of the song with the biggest grin on my face.

_They're gonna miss me when I'm dead and gone._

_They're gonna talk about me over and over and over._

_They're gonna file me under latest nostalgia, happily ever after._

       That knocked her out of the daze she steps to the spare mic and we sing the last part together.

_But I'm not a hero, I'm a liar._

_I'm not a savior, I'm a vampire._

_Sucking the life out of all the friends I've ever known._

_We're a trainwreck, not winners._

_On a soap box preaching down to the sinners._

_Saints without a cause, we're not listening, we're not listening,_

_We're not listening, we're not listening._

       The second the song is over I step close to Kelsie and whisper in her ear, “You don’t know what you’ve started, best to back the fuck off.” I pass my guitar to the guy that was originally playing before heading back to my best friend and brother.

       The time between lunch and music went by too quickly, before I knew any better I was walking into music class. As I walk past Mr. Zortman I wave as a greeting. “Why good morning, Miss Hood,” he replies a bit to chipper. I stop dead there and rethink about what he had just said.

       I turn to look at him slightly confused. “Sir,” I say slowly looking at him, he cocks his eyebrow up telling me to continue, “Its 1:30 in the afternoon. Therefore not morning.”

       He gives me a half smile while saying, “Astute observation Miss Hood.”

       I shake off the strange encounter and continue into class, digging my headphones out of my bad as I go. I finally free my headphones and phone from my bag when I reach my seat. I look up at the desk to see none other than Kelsie sitting there. I let out a long sigh and look at her, she has a permanent smirk on her lips.

       “Hello partner,” She greets her voice dripping with false friendliness. “I don’t really want to deal with you this week, so we are going to work on the first small assignment. Which is finding a song that we think describes our partners at first glance, that the partner will then sing. Its due Monday. Have fun,” She bites while standing and swaying back to her seat. I stand there dumbfounded till Mr. Zortman calls the class to order.

 


	9. Chapter 5: Kelsie

The rest of the week went by fairly well. The only major cause of stress I had this week was from my dad bursting into my room and throwing a box of purple hair dye at me, demanding I do his hair. However, it was Friday and Friday’s meant game days and there wasn’t a day that I disliked more than game day. Don’t get me wrong, I was happy that the comradery was so high and everyone loves when the home team wins. What I hated, was the tradition. The tradition that stated that if it was your team’s game day, basically anyone could come up to you and make out with you in the hallway if you wore a jersey. Not only was it barbaric, it also caused the hallways to turn into chaos.

I spent the morning bypassing people trying to suck the face off of our girl’s football team. The only girl who wasn’t being attacked was Alexa and that was because no one would for fear that Blake would beat them up. The halls were like a wild teen party, there were people making out everywhere. I was so happy when lunch time came around.

I had to walk around a bit to find Blake and Alexa and when I did, I saw Blake talking to Marcus and Rich. Marcus was the first to notice me approaching and gave me the biggest death glare. I just rolled my eyes as I came up next to Alexa.

“You guys got the plan,” Blake asked them.

“Yep! She won’t suspect a thing. See you in a few bro,” Rich said waving us off.

I followed Alexa and Blake to our lunch table. We immediately sat down and I was very confused.

“Aren’t we going to get food,” I question. “Come on guys! It’s turkey burgers today. You know they’re my favorite.”

“Hold on. We gotta wait for something,” is all Blake says. I open my journal to waste time, but it doesn’t take long for me to hear someone screaming to be put down. I look up and see MJ arriving into the lunch room on the shoulders of Richard and Marcus. So that’s what Blake was getting them to do. I look over and see Blake losing his shit. He jumps up and goes over to them. He’s just a bit out of earshot, so when I see both Marcus and Rich toss MJ off of their shoulders into Blake’s arms I’m a little scared at first. Blake carries her over to our table and gently let’s her down. I turn back to my journal so I don’t have to make awkward eye contact.

“Blake I told you, you can’t kidnap MJ just because she has fun hair,” Alexa jokes as Blake sits back down. I’m staring at the poem I started on the first day of school and a question pops into my head. Sadly my mouth blurts it out before my brain can tell it to shut up.

“What does it stand for?” I ask still looking down. Fuck. I didn’t want to interact with her. Maybe she’ll just ignore it.

“What does what stand for,” MJ asks, obviously looking for context.

I sigh and close my journal. Looks like I wasn’t getting out of it that easily.

“Your name genius,” I say sounding more snarky than I intended. “Unless your parents were stupid enough to name you the two letters M and J, I figured they meant something. So what is it?”

She rolls her eyes and stands up from the table. Honestly I probably could have just Googled it.

“Madlenka-Jaden Karen Anna-Marie Hood is my full name,” she says to me. I look at her like she has 4 heads.

“It’s a bit of a mouth full don’t you think? I mean you have like ten names, were your parents really thinking that through?”

She turns to Blake and tries to whisper, ‘Is she coming to the party?’ but it’s just loud enough that I can hear it.

“Yeah I’m the DJ,” I interject. Blake and Alexa look at me with wide eyes. They were still trying all week to get me to DJ.

MJ nods and turns to walk back to usual table.

“Don’t pick anything we can’t dance to,” she shoots over her shoulder before walking away.

Alexa smacks my arm and I turn to shoot her a death glare while I rub my injury.

“If you’re going to this party just to mess with the Hoods, I swear to God I will-,” she starts.

“I’m not going to mess with them,” I cut her off. She glares at me, seeing through my bullshit.

“Okay. I’m not just going to mess with them. You guys need me to DJ anyway, I’m the best DJ in this school. If I didn’t DJ, you’d just use some half assed playlist Spotify recommended to you.”

“Don’t you use Spotify anyway,” Blake asked.

“Don’t insult me like that,” I say getting up to get food.

Lunch passed by quickly after that. Alexa gave me her song request and the list of song requests from the other girls on the team sans MJ. It was another tradition that at game parties, the team would give me (the DJ) a song request to play at the victory party. All the teams knew I was usually the person who DJ’ed, so they started writing all the songs down and giving them to me to put on the playlist I’d make before the party. I told Blake I’d leave the game early to bring my equipment to his house and set up. He knew the drill and said he’d make sure to drive separately from his family so him and Alexa could leave and help set up the party.

The day seemed to zoom by after that. Acting was filled with Improv games, chem was filled with a lab about chemical reactions, and stats was filled with a boring packet that wasn’t due till the following week. Finally music came and Mr. Zortman just let us work on our projects the entire period. I spent the time wandering around the school trying to think of songs to put on the party playlist.

I ended up in the lobby in front of the theater. One of the doors were open and I poked my head inside to see the only light on was the stage lights and front and center was MJ playing a bass guitar. She was playing a song that sounded very familiar. It wasn’t till the song was almost over that I recognized it as a song from my dad’s old band; I think the song was English Love Affair. She looked up towards the door and I ducked back into the hallway before she could see who it was.

I had a plan. She must like the song enough to know how to play it. I decided to just make that song her request song. But what if she saw me before I left? I couldn’t deal with her yelling at me for “spying” on her. So maybe what I can do is play a song that I pick for her as a bit of a teaser.

The bell rang and I met Blake and Alexa at my car. I dropped Alexa off and went over to the Hemmings so I could scope out the perfect location for my set up. Their house was fairly large and open so in the living room by the staircase was probably the best place for maximum sound range. I hugged Molly and Allison as I left since they wouldn’t be at the party and thanked Luke and his wife Skylar for allowing the party. I went home and grabbed a quick meal before I went to work on the playlist.

Just as I was adding the last song to the main party playlist, I heard a knock at my door.

“Come in!”

My Dad walks in and sits at the end of my bed. I swivel the desk chair I’m sitting on to look at him. He looks kinda nervous and a bit angry. It wasn’t often I saw Michael look nervous. He was the most confident man I knew, I envied that about him. I closed my laptop and moved over to sit next to my dad.

“What’s up,” I ask hugging him.

“Your father is making me come with you two to the game tonight,” he deadpans.

“Why is that bad? I control the music and Father does the announcing. You get to sit there and look handsome,” I say trying to cheer him up. A small smile shows on his face but quickly fades.

“But He is going to be there because of his daughter and I don’t want to see him.”

“Dad, you sound like a teen girl. Sure Cal will be there, but you’ll be the whole way up in the press box with us. Plus if you think about it, he’s probably going to be down close to the pitch to see everything. I’m sure you won’t even see him.”

He ponders this for a bit before sighing.

“I guess you’re right,” he finally says. “When did you get so smart? It must be from Ash.”

“He had some help raising me right,” I say hugging him again. He kisses the top of my head before he walks to the door.

“We’re soon leaving if you want to ride with us,” he says at the door.

“Can’t. I’m DJ for the victory party tonight at the Hemming’s house. Gotta leave early so I can get my gear there.”

“THAT’S WHY HE’S MAKING ME GO! SO I CAN TAKE OVER YOUR JOB!”

“Oops. Sorry Dad,” I laugh. He’s faking anger. It’s not the first time he’s had to help with the music, just the first time he’s had to be near Calum. I make sure all my equipment is together before I leave; following my dads to the stadium. When we get there, I go into the storage room where they have all the audio equipment and such stored and pull out all the cables I need to connect the computer with the speaker system. Since the school has an approved playlist for all the games I don’t need to make one for every team.

I’m inside the booth when the coach of the football team enters with a piece of paper in their hand. In hand writing I can clearly tell is Alexa’s, it says that when the team is announced the song “I Like It” by We The Kings is to be played. I look back up at the coach and see a dumbfounded look. Of course he wouldn’t know that the first line of that song is ‘You’ve got a tendency for taking all your clothes off’. Lord knows what they have planned for it. I wave him off as I finish plugging in the last cords for the mic Ashton will use for announcing.

I look out to the seats and see people are starting to file in. I search for a song to start playing while everyone is getting seated and settle for some Queen song before I rush out to try and find my dads to get them into the booth. I finally found them by the gate talking to Alex and Jack.

“Hey,” I say stepping into their conversation. “Sorry to interrupt, but this game needs an announcer and my voice isn’t that good.”

Alex and Jack laugh and wave good bye to my dads as they go to grab seats. I follow my parents up to the press box and sit in front of the computer, ready to end the song so Ashton can start announcing. The song ends and I stop it and I give my father the go ahead to speak.

“Good evening ladies and gentleman,” my father’s voice booms through the speakers.

“Tonight’s game is between the West Sydney Prep Lions and our very own Kaybridge Academy Amazons. Now if you’ll please help me welcome the away team to the pitch, I give you the West Sydney Prep Lions.”

I start playing “We Will Rock You” by Queen as the other team enters onto the field. Their school’s colors of yellow and blue look horrible together. The few parents who’ve come to the game cheer as their kids run out. I just roll my eyes and hear Dad laugh at the mediocre representation of spirit. When they finally all get to their benches, I fade out the music and the crowd gets so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

“And now, the team you’ve all been waiting to see,” Ashton plays up. “Without further adue, your home team the Kaybridge Amazons!”

I start playing the requested song and get ready to see the shit show that about to unfold in front of me. As soon as the song starts up, the team is running onto the field and the crowd is going crazy. It doesn’t take long for the intro to end and Travis to start singing. As soon as I hear “you’ve got a tendency for taking all your clothes off” I see Alexa and MJ running out in their shorts and a sports bra on. My eyes almost pop out of my head from shock. They start doing flips in the air and soon it turns into a grind train on the center of the pitch.

I look over to my parents and see they have similar expressions to me. How did the coach not ask about this song? Soon their running to the fence separating the field from the stands and pumping up the crowd even more. I look back to the field and see the entire team in a circle swaying to the song. Finally the song ends, Alexa and MJ put on their jerseys, and the game starts.

Usually I like watching the games. I get to see how my friends perform. However this game just feels wrong. Maybe it’s the fact that every time Ash says “Hood”, Michael lets out an annoyed grunt. I spend a majority of the game doing what I always do; play bits of songs that were old when our parents were our age.

It wasn’t until close to half time when anything interesting happened. One of our players, Lizzy, went to go score and a player on the other team basically tackled her causing her to have her ankle not in a very unnatural angle. The other player was kicked from the game and Lizzy was being wheeled into an ambulance still yelling about how she could still play. I had to admit the girl had a high pain tolerance.

I look back to the pitch and see MJ looking up into the box with a surprised look on her face, but she wasn’t looking at me. I look over to my dads, Ash with his hair tied into one of his famous man buns with a bandana wrapped around his head and Mikey with a look that could kill anyone in his path; though the purple hair just made him look cuddly to me. It suddenly clicked that she’s probably never actually seen them. Maybe in old photos if anything. Sure I’ve never met Calum, but I saw him on tv. She’s probably been banned from even looking at old videos from the band.

I waited till there was about 20 minutes left in the game before I let Michael take over for me and went to the Hemmings house. Sure the Hemmings lived like 10 minutes from the school, but I could make it there in 5 and have all of my equipment set up and playing with enough time for me to find the hard cider I had Blake buy just for me. The cider was mostly for the fact that being at one of these parties sucked if you were completely sober. I didn’t like the taste of beer and hard liquor gets me too drunk too quickly and I still had to DJ the party; so cider it was.

As it turned out when all was said and done, I still had about 10 or so minutes till Blake and Richard would be here so I decided to roam around the house. I looked at some of the family photos, Luke and Skylar’s wedding pictures, baby pictures of all the Hemming kids. I even found one that was taken when Blake and I were probably 5, Allison was 7, and Rich was only about 2. Blake, Allison, and I have our arms on each other’s shoulders and have smiles that only kids could have while baby Richard is crawling on the dirt by our feet.

I wander further into the house and end up standing outside two doors, one leads to Blake’s room, the other to Richard’s. I had been in Blake’s room plenty of times. It was similar to mine in the fact that it was covered wall to wall with posters and pictures, however his bed was always unmade and his desk had way too many pens and there was always some food item that was left there for just a bit too long.

I looked over to Rich’s room and my mind wandered. I hadn’t seen it since he was probably 7 or 8. Back then it was still full of toys and had nitro cars and sports poster pasted here and there. I push open the door and notice it’s basically the same. His bed is sitting in the middle of the farthest wall, but his toy bin has been replaced with a desk and the posters have changed to band posters; one being our dads. I notice his one wall has pictures pasted to it. I look closer and see him and MJ at what I can only assume is random places around England and at some concerts.

I notice he has 2 pictures framed next to his bed. One is of him and MJ, taken somewhere outside and by someone else. He’s kissing her on the cheek and she has the biggest smile on her face. They actually look really cute, I knew roughly when this was and remembered Rich being really hung up on going back. He fell hard for her. The other picture is taken outside my house, I had just gotten my license and my dad’s surprised me with a car. Rich is laying on the roof of the car posing with his one leg bent and his arm bent and supporting his head. Alexa is sitting on the trunk with her legs up and Blake and I are on the road trying to look like thugs. The photo was old, it was taken when I still had my natural hair and had only thought about dying my hair.

I made my way back downstairs just as the two entered the house. A smile on their faces.

“So I guess we won,” I say making my way back to my DJ station. Rich followed me to look at all my equipment. I forgot this was technically his first party with us and he hadn't seen my set up. I watched him check out everything as Blake went off to hopefully get ready for the party. Soon Rich and I started talking about the different equipment I used and software and other DJ stuff.

“So,” I say starting to switch the subject. “You think your brother will let you drink at this party?”

“I’m sure he will,” Rich said taking a sip of the soda he got. “But I don’t really want to. I making it my mission to make sure MJ doesn’t get into trouble.”

I quirk an eyebrow as I sip more of my cider; still on my first one.

“It’s just a precautionary thing. She’s use to England parties.”

“You do you, Dick. I’ll do me, and you do you.” I take another sip and kinda just let it sit in my mouth.

“-And we won’t do each other,” he finishes, referring to an old YouTube video we saw a long time ago. I nearly spit my drink out and start to choke on it and Richard start howling with laughter.

Just as I get over my episode, Blake came back in having set everything out in the kitchen and hiding the expensive items. We all collect ourselves and soon people are showing up and the party is well under way. After a few tracks I look out into the crowd and see Rich dancing with who I’m guessing is MJ. I dispose of my bottle and grab a water from the cooler I have set under my table. I go back to making sure my playlist is moving along nicely when I hear someone shout “Hey” at me. I look and see MJ standing a bit closer than normal to me. I’m not sure how long she’s been here, but she’s starting to smell like booze.

“WHAT,” I shout back to her, hoping she can hear over the music.

“ALEXA TOLD ME TO REQUEST A SONG FOR MYSELF AS LIKE AN ANTHEM OR SOMETHING!”

“YOU ALREADY HAVE ONE PICKED FOR YOU, SOMEONE ELSE REQUESTED IT, SO GO BACK TO DO WHATEVER YOU AND RICHARD WERE DOING!”

I click on the playlist for the team’s songs and make sure MJ’s is last.

“WAIT WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE IS ALREADY A SONG FOR ME?! I THOUGHT IT WAS SOMETHING I CHOICED TO DESCRIBE ME, NOT SOMEONE ELSE’S OPINION!!”

Fuck, can’t she just deal with it?

“LOOK THE PLAYLIST IS LOCKED IN AND YOUR SONG IS LAST, DEAL. IT’S A GOOD SONG!”

I can’t be sure if she said anything back but I turn to her and she’s walking back to Richard, downing a drink that must have been handed to her. I look back to the playlist to look over the girl’s songs again. The first song is for Alexa and it’s a country song called Country Girl. I roll my eyes and wait for the current to song to end before I stop the music. There’s a few complaints shout by newbies who don’t know what’s going on.

“PEOPLE! IT’S THAT TIME OF THE NIGHT! THE TIME WHEN YOU CAN’T YELL AT ME FOR A BAD SONG,” I joke and get a few laughs.

“THIS FIRST SONG IS REQUESTED BY THE BEST CAPTAIN THIS SCHOOL HAS EVER SEEN. MY GIRL ALEXA REQUESTED COUNTRY GIRL BECAUSE WE ALL KNOW THAT’S WHO SHE IS!” I get more laughs as I start the song up.

I look out and see Alexa and Blake dancing super close. I scan the crowd for Rich and find him glaring at someone from across the room. I follow his sight and see MJ dancing with possibly one of the worst guys at our school. Victor was known to play girl just to get into their pants. Obviously Rich wouldn’t be happy about that. As the night went on, she just kept getting closer and closer to him and he kept feeding her drinks. I’m surprised she hasn’t puked yet. Fortunately as the playlist was nearing its end, Richard went back to her. Finally it was time for MJ’s song.

“Lastly we have our amazing keeper’s shout out, then to finish the list I have a song I found personally fits Miss MJ Hood, but first here is English Love Affair by 5 Seconds of Summer,” I started the track up and say MJ practically scream from excitement. She hugged Rich probably thinking he requested it for her, but he shot me a confusing look. I just waved it off and let them dance. I get my surprise song ready to fade in as this one ends.

I look up just as Shameless by All Time Low starts playing. I see MJ’s face turn from shock to determination. Suddenly she jumps onto the coffee table and starts dancing. I look over at Alexa and see she’s a bit uncomfortable seeing someone dance like that to her dad’s band. MJ practically turns the living room into her personal dance studio as she flips and dances on most of the surfaces. I’m especially not happy when she’s on my equipment. The song finally ends and I start back up the other playlist and let her get lost in the crowd.

I decide to go take a break from all the people and go sit out by my car. The air is humid like it usually is at this time of year, but there’s a slight breeze that goes every so often that makes it nice out. I take in a deep breath and relax a bit. I soon hear footsteps coming towards me and see Rich coming.

“Sup,” I ask him leaning on my car as he stops on the other side.

“How did you know,” he asks.

“Know what?”

“That that was her favorite song? Like on a scale of 1 to 10 that’s like 2, but still. How?”

I just shrug. “How’d you know I chose the song?”

“Cause who else would have access to the playlist? Plus Alexa told her to pick a song and I could hear your conversation. You two are loud.”

I just shrug and sigh.

“You know she thinks I picked the song,” he says. I nod.

“I’m gonna tell her it was you.”

My eyes shoot open.

“No. You can’t.”

“Why?”

“Cause one song won’t change anything. At least not right now. I need to just selectively be in her corner till we stop being at each other’s throats.”

“You know she wants this to be over too.”

I nod again, running my fingers through my hair.

“You’ll get there Kels. Don’t worry. If it helps, pretty sure she hates you less than she hates her mom.”

I don’t really know what he means by that so I just nod. Rich turns to walk back to the party but before he takes a step he swings back around.

“Why don’t you drink at the parties?”

“I drink.,” I say referring to the cider.

“You know what I mean. Last I hear that you were drunk was when you were in year 10 and there was that party a bunch of bands had for their kids.”

I knew what party he was talking about. Truth be told that WAS the last party I got drunk at.

“Guess Blake never told you what happened at that party.”

“Nope. But I know after that party you came out.”

I laughed. “Yeah, cause at the party I got so drunk I slept with Mike Fuentes’s son and then made out with Vic’s daughter.”

“YOU’RE THE ONE THAT DID THAT?! Holy fuck!”

“Yep. I’m the girl who took Xavier virginity and help Victora figure out she was gay.”

I walked around my car and wrapped my arm around Rich’s shoulder as best as I could.

“When I grow up, I wanna be just like you dad,” He said sarcastically.

“You will son,” I said in a deep voice. We walked back into the house ready to enjoy the party.

I was back at my DJ station and taking the occasional request when I suddenly heard someone yelling from upstairs. People weren’t exactly allowed upstairs at these parties so everyone was interested in what happened. I stopped the music which caused the rest of the people to stop and pay attention to the drama. I scanned the room and couldn’t find Rich, MJ, or Victor. Oh fuck.

"RICHARD! Would you please stop and listen to me!?!?" Richard came down the stairs with MJ close behind him.

“I don't want to hear your half assed excuses. Admit it MJ you fucked up. Literally,” Rich shoots back. I have never seen him this angry and hurt.

"I know I did okay but will you let me explain for like five minutes!” MJ is pleading with him.

Blake tried to go calm the situation down but Rich is having none of it.

"Don't you dare try and tell me to calm down," Rich yells at Blake, shoving him back.

He turns back to MJ and I can only imagine the fire in his eyes.

“You aren't worth five minutes. I don't want to see you again. Get out of my fuck house you bitch!"

Holy. Fuck. MJ starts to cry, obviously Rich has never treated her like this. I’ve never heard him mean the word ‘bitch’ like that.

"Hemo please,” she begs. “Just will you listen to me. I need to explain."

Blake whispers something to Rich before Rich grabs MJ’s wrist and takes her out of the house.

“Okay guys,” Blake announces. “Parties over!”

I watch as people exit the house, most disappointed the party is ending so early; it’s probably like close to 2 in the morning.

I start disassembling my set up and Alexa and Blake help me get everything into my car. I wave goodbye to them as I head back to my house. I leave everything but my laptop in my car for the night and head up to my room. My mind is still trying to figure out what happened when my brain finally shuts off.


	10. Chapter 5: MJ

Thus continued the rest of the week. Wake up, take Rich and I to school, go through hell for my first classes, go to lunch eat with Richard, ignore Kelsie and all that she represents, have afternoon classes, continue to ignore her in music, go to footie practice, go home, do homework, eat dinner with dad and Marcus, ignore how sunken in my dad has gotten, shower, go to bed, repeat the next morning.

Finally its Friday, our first game and most importantly it’s against our rival team. The team wears our beautiful midnight blue with silver writing home jerseys, except for me who had it reversed since I was the keeper. Across the front dead center of it was the school name and in the top corner left was the school emblem. On the back across my shoulder blades in all caps was M. HOOD with 13 in the center. Everyone was beyond pump for the game, cheering whenever they see one of the girls in the hallway. A strange tradition that I was warned about was that the boys, and some girls, will just run up to us and kiss us anywhere on the face as a good luck treat. It was awkward at first but I quickly grew fond of it.

When I found Richard that morning, having ridden with Kelsie since I had early morning game prep and couldn’t take him, he lifted me up so I was at eye level with him. I instinctively wrapped my legs around his waist to keep myself up. Before I could ask what the hell he was doing he planted a strong and passionate kiss right on my lips. I kissed back just as strong, I could hear the wolf whistling and cheering as we just continued to make out by my locker. When we did pull back I was still being held up by Richard and my legs around his waist. “I have ever told you I love game day?” He asks sarcastically with a goofy smile.

I giggle at him while slapping his chest. “Are you trying to tell me that you do that to all the girls on team?” I ask, acting slightly hurt and sad.

He shakes his head and gives me a soft peck. “No, only for you. Good luck today,” He whispers softly. He hugs me close to his chest before setting me on the ground.

“Finally getting her to date you bro?” Richard and I both turn at the sound of Blake’s voice. We see him smiling too wide to be nonpainful while holding at tight grip of Alexa’s slim waist, Kelsie was nowhere in sight.

Richard pulls me back and I relax against his chest. “No,” he giggles at his brother, “ I was just wishing her luck like the tradition tells us to.”

“That was a bit more than tradition calls for, man,” Blake points out while lightly pushing his brother’s shoulder.

 

I roll my eyes at the both of them. “I got to get to class, I’ll see you at lunch,” I tell as I reach into my locker to get my first two classes books’. I have time to stop by and get third before class starts.

“You are coming to the victory party tonight at the Hemmings’ after our win right?” Alexa asks before I can get away, she sounds so sure that we will win.

“Do not you mean if we win, it’s not guaranteed,” I remind her.

She just rolls her eyes while smiling fondly. “To hell it isn’t. With you in goal we are totally gonna cream them.”

“Fine yeah I’ll be there,” I say as I walk away from them and head to my class. I make it in my seat just before the bell goes off.

Time flies, when you zone out in every single class. It was lunch before I could even realise. I meet up with my brother and Richard at my locker like the first day. But this time they were sharing the smirk of a devil. I slow down the closer I get to them. “What the hell is- HOLY SHIT PUT ME DOWN RIGHT NOW GUYS!!” I start yelling and flailing as they pick me up so I’m sitting with one leg on each of their shoulders.

Rich just laughs while Marc pipes, “If you don’t stop squirming you will fall, and you are too high up to not get hurt.”

I huff but let them carry me into the cafeteria. I duck when we get to the doors so I don’t get knocked out. The second I enter the cafe I’m hit with the wave of loud and deep roar of laughter that can only belong to Blake. I look up from the floor and see him jump over the table that him, Alexa, and Kelsie had been sitting at. “Holy shit,” He breathes in awe staring up at me, I feel the shake of Hemo’s shoulders as he laughs along. “When I dared you guys to carry her like a queen to lunch I didn’t believe you would do it.”

I glare and realise I should of known it was his idea to do this. “I actually hate you,” I deadpan at him.

“Drop her, I’ll catch her,” Blake tells my carriers and they do without second thought, I scream on the way down. When I feel his tight grip under my back and knees I press tight against his chest for protection. “Hey I told you I would catch you love,” he whispered calmly in my ear. Then proceeded to carry me across the cafe to Alexa.

“Blake I told you, you can’t kidnap MJ just because she has fun hair,” Alexa jokingly kids as Blake place me in a chair across from her.

“What does it stand for?” Kelsie asks loud and monotone. Not even look up from her journal.

“What does what stand for?” I ask, seeing as the question seemed out of context with Alexa’s scolding of kidnapping me.

Kelsie sighs and closes her journal looking up at me, I feel Blake physically stiffen behind me. “Your name genius,” She deadpans, “unless your parents were stupid enough to name you the two letters M and J, I figured they meant something. So what is it?”

I roll my eyes but it’s not like it's a big secret, I look over at her as I stand, “Madlenka-Jaden Karen Anna-Marie Hood is my full name.” I state looking back at her.

“It’s a bit of a mouth full don’t you think? I mean you have like ten names, were your parents really thinking that through?” She sarcastically questions, one eyebrow raised.

I turn to Blake so I can whisper to him, “Is she coming to the party?”

Before he could respond Kelsie bit, “Yeah I’m the DJ.”

Both Alexa and Blake looked surprise at her response, like she just decide this when I asked about it. I nod solemnly and begin to walk away. “Don’t pick anything we can’t dance to,” I tell her right before I turn back to find my brother and Hemo.

The rest of the day passed without incident. Mr. Lang gave me a light workout to do so I wouldn’t get hurt before the game. Maths was easy and Mrs. Grogg wished me luck as I left, I got several more kisses from everyone that I passed in the hallway- though none were like Rich’s thankfully-, and Mr. Zortman let me go and play the bass along on the main stage, though I could of sworn I saw someone peeking in as I played my dad’s old songs, favorite being one called English Love Affair.

Finally it was the hour before the game. Everyone was changing out of our pants and into the lower half of our uniform, seeing as we had worn the top half all day. 

“Alright ladies!!” Alexa yells as she jumps up on the bench ready to give her pregame speech. “You all expect something encouraging and meaningful and badass to come out of my mouth right?!” We cheer in response, I’m stand right below her to the left and I can see the permanent grin plastered on her face that reflects onto ours. We all go silent when she raises her hand signaling she’s not done, “Well I’m not going there because you don’t need it! We are going to kick their butts and party like hell tonight, to start a new perfect season! So no prep, no mush, just us! Everyone in!” We gather around in a circle, putting our hands in. “Team on three! One, two, three-”

“TEAM!” We chorus together. The announcers begin and we can hear the crowd cheering. The speaker, that I was told to be Ashton Irwin-Clifford, introduced the other team as we got in position for our entrance. Alexa and I look at each other in the back of everyone and nod. I toss my keeper govels to Claire, my center defender, and my jersey to the center mid at the top of the line, while Alexa does the same but with no gloves and hands her jersey to the left mid. 

“Without further adue, your home team the Kaybridge Amazons!” Ashton’s voice booms through the speakers in the locker room. The beat to I Like It by We the Kings kicks in and the first two players head out. The pattern continues where two players head out every time the kick drum hits, and every time Travis sings “hey hey!”

The girls right before go and I give Alexa nod. We rush out so we don’t miss the start of the verse.

You got a tendency for taking all you clothes off!

Alexa does a front handspring followed by a cartwheel up to the left mid who is holding her shirt while I do a front handspring followed by a backflip up to the center mid.

Oh man hot damn you got a body like oh oh oh oh Oh oh oh oh

I do another flip backing away from the person with my jersey. Following with a hand stand back to her. 

You got a part of me addicted to the moment, oh man hot damn we’re going down like

When I’m back on my feet Lizzy, the center mid, grabs my hand and drags me to the circle where they were dancing and grinding. Alexa is on Carter, the left mid, and me on Lizzy.

Oh oh oh oh oh Oh oh oh oh oh I like it

For each oh we stomp and clap in time with the song. While they did that I made my way over to the three other defenders doing back handsprings and cartwheels and flips that got me from the center circle to the goalie box where they were standing. Who, like all the other players on our team, were stopping and clapping and smiling.

Right before the chorus kicks in I get to them and get ready to do the lean in and then out in a circle as we sing.

Oh from the minute you walked in my life I've never felt so alive 'cause everything I did was wrong But everything I do feels right I love it when you make me laugh I love it when you make me cry 'Cause everything I did was wrong But everything I do feels right oh oh oh oh

We are laugh too much for the last I like it oh oh oh oh I like it.

You've got a temperature that fever feel that’s so nice Oh man hot damn I’m burning up like oh oh oh oh She got me coming going til the morning sunlight Oh man hot damn we going down like oh oh oh oh. I like it. Oh from the minute you walked in my life I've never felt so alive 'cause everything I did was wrong But everything I do feels right I love it when you make me laugh I love it when you make me cry 'Cause everything I did was wrong But everything I do feels right oh oh oh oh I like it oh oh oh oh

As the short instrumental and next verse comes in I throw on my jersey and gloves that I got from my teammates. All I can hear is the crowd going crazy about everything. I run over to the fence and jump on it raising my hands above my head while mouthing GET FUCKING LOUDER!! As balance on the wide metal cylinder I start dancing and grinding in time with the beat of the music. I spot my father and Uncle Luke in the crowd. Dad looks a little disturbed but happy at the same time, like he is proud. Luke is getting into the music which is the funniest thing to see. All limbs shaking about hitting my dad in the face. I start to hear a chant of “Backflip! Backflip! Backflip!” from the crowd and I nod. Right before the chorus comes in I kick off the bar and flip twice before landing in another back handspring, followed by a series of no handed and one handed cartwheels till I’m back to the center circle with the rest of team for the bridge where we dance together.

So let me see you break it down Yeah yeah So let me see you break it down Yeah yeah So let me see you break it down Oh oh oh oh oh yeah So let me see you break it down Oh oh oh oh yeah yeah

The other team has walked over at this point glaring at us. They line up to get a perfect view of what we are doing. The last chorus is coming and the team spreads out so we can put our left arms around the person next and sway forward and backwards in the direction of our competitors. None of us can stop the shit eating grin from making it to their face as we sing the last chorus to them.

Oh from the minute you walked in my life I've never felt so alive 'cause everything I did was wrong Now everything I do feels right I love it when you make me laugh I love it when you make me cry 'Cause everything I did was wrong Now everything I do feels right oh oh oh oh I like it oh oh oh oh I like it

The song ends and we are laughing. The crowd is cheering too loud for me to focus on anything. The refs blow the whistle signalling that the game will start now. We break into our mandated positions, and get ready. The whistle blows, the clock starts, and I go into game mood.

At halftime the score was 3-0 us and nothing could stop us. Someone had taken a cheap shot on Lizzy as she went to score a goal. Her ankle is still bent at weird angle as she was carried to the ambulance at half time. I didn’t realise till the break whistle blew. “Hey,” Alexa whispers to me as we head back to the field, “just keep doing what you’re doing. You insane out there.” Then pats my back and heads out. There is no fancy dance or song this time just the loud ringing of Hott In Here by some rapper that I can’t remember as both teams take the field.

As I get back in the goal I look up at the press box on the home side bleachers. I see two men in there that I only partially recognized. One with long, curly, honey colored hair tied into a man bun with the bangs kept out of his eyes by what looks like a bandana. He was sitting at the mic that is connected to the sound system of the stadium, dressed in a shred old band shirt and jeans. The other man is standing behind him with arms crossed looking severally pissed with everything. His hair is long but not as long as the one sitting and is currently colored purple, about as dark as my highlights. That’s Michael and Ashton. Is the only thought that passes through my head before the whistle blows and I’m sent into my head space.

We won the game 4-0. The girl that got Lizzy out of the game got taken down by one of my defenders when she tried to score. We shout out the I Believe That We Have Won chant, lead by Alexa of course. All the girls crowd me and tap my head as a show of the fact that not a single goal scored.

Once I’m out of the huddle I rush to the fence finding my Father and Uncle Luke standing there with smiles on their faces. “Did you see that game! Uggg it was so good for a start of the season! Please tell me someone recorded it?!” I shout with joy as Calum picks me up and spins me around. He set me down and Luke pulls me close from behind so I can still see my dad.

“You did great honey, I couldn’t be more proud,” My dad tells me, I can hear the swell of pride in his voice, as he ruffles my hair.

“I know for a fact that Ash records the games in the press box, you could go ask him to give you a copy of the tapes,” Luke tells us. I see my dad’s face fall at the mention of his old friend.

He puts on a fake smile and say, “well from what I hear there is a victory party to go to. Luke and I are heading out for drinks at a local bar. Don’t do anything stupid, and watch your brother for me. I love you, see you tomorrow.” He ruffles my hair, then grabs Luke and pulls him away to the car.

I sigh and head to the locker room to shower before the party. When I get there most of the girls are already gone, the only ones left are Alexa, the two trainers, and myself. Alexa pops up when she see I’ve come in. “There you are! Come on everyone is already at Blake’s for the party, shower quick and put back on your jersey when you’re done. we need to hurry!” She pushes all of my shower stuff into my arms and forces me to the showers. I turn the water on freezing and let my hair out of its long braid. The whole time I’m showering Alexa is babbling on about the game, how she scored, how amazing I was, and just everything. She’s in the middle of recall how Sammy, a defender, took out the girl that knock Lizzy out when I step out in acid wash electric blue shorts and my jersey on, with my hair down and a grey beanie covering it.

“Ready to go?” I ask stand slightly awkward in front of her. She nods quickly and picks up my bag while rushing out of the room. I stop her when we get to my bike and take my bag back, I see Blake waiting for her by his Hummer. “I’ll meet you there go ride with Blake,” I nod toward him as he waves. Alexa smiles and runs off to him. When she gets there he slams her against the car and I turn away, feeling as if I was watching something I shouldn’t. I start my bike and speed off to the Hemmings home, beyond ready to get smashed.

When I get there the party is already in full swing. The alcohol was everywhere, more than enough to kill everyone here in the kitchen. I find the mixing glasses and make a quick Screaming Orgasm and then a Ginger Yule, downing them both quickly loving the burn. It reminded me perfectly of my boarding school and I was happy to go to that hell for a night. I pick up a Budweiser and head out to find Richard.

“How much have you already had? You legit just got here!” I hear someone yell in my ear over the loud music that Kelsie had control over. I turn to see Rich towering over me, leaning close in a protective manner. The alcohol hasn’t had time to affect me yet, but it won’t take that long with how much I’ve had.

“Two shots and a sip of beer. I’m alright for now, half an hour from now not so much but still, for now I’m okay,” I tell him with a smile, and taking another sip of beer. He nods and pull me to the floor.

“We are going to dance and relax okay? You aren’t relax so get there and be happy,” He whispers in my ear and turns me so he is pressing close to my back. He begins to sway us to the beat of the song that I now recognize as Flavour of The Weak by American Hi-Fi a band that Luke introduced us to.

We are still dancing three songs later, only now I have half a beer, we are facing each other, and his face is in my neck; not kissing it but resting his lips there and not moving. Alexa comes up to us and taps me on the shoulder. “Sorry to interrupt, but you need to go to Kelsie and request a song. It’s a lame thing we do at victory parties,” Alexa says with a ‘what can you do’ kinda expression.

I do a brief nod and she’s off again. I look back at Rich to say I have to go but he’s already waving me off with his cute half smile. I nod and take off to the table that Kelsie was standing behind, with a pair of laptops and a few other gadgets. “HEY!” I call out over the booming music, which got louder as I got to her.

“WHAT?” She scream, more mouths since I could barely hear her, as she turns her eyes away from the screens to meet mine.

“ALEXA TOLD ME TO REQUEST A SONG FOR MYSELF AS LIKE AN ANTHEM OR SOMETHING!” I explain in shouts, I dared to get a little closer as I talked, the alcohol was hitting my bloodstream like a freight train now and me moving closer was more just so I could lean on the table for some extra support.

“YOU ALREADY HAVE ONE PICKED FOR YOU, SOMEONE ELSE REQUESTED IT, SO GO BACK TO DO WHATEVER YOU AND RICHARD WERE DOING!” Kelsie replies then turns back to the screens. I see her click a list titled “Soccer team shout outs” on the screen closest to me.

“WAIT WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE IS ALREADY A SONG FOR ME?! I THOUGHT IT WAS SOMETHING I CHOICED TO DESCRIBE ME, NOT SOMEONE ELSE’S OPINION!!” I yell, getting angry that again I couldn’t decide something about my own life, but instead had to take what others believe.

“LOOK THE PLAYLIST IS LOCKED IN AND YOUR SONG IS LAST, DEAL. IT’S A GOOD SONG!” She argues back still not looking up at me.

I let out a breathy laugh, “Yeah I’m sure it’s the best, thanks bitch.” I turn to find a drink then Richard. Someone hands me an unopened beer and I chug it, then wave my hand asking for another. The guy looks shocked and impressed. He’s nice looking, about Blake’s height and build, but with paler skin, it complements his blonde hair nicely, and causes his blended blue- green eyes to pop.

“You drink better than most the guys on the rugby team, I can respect that in a woman. Lovely to meet you, I’m Victor Bepler, co-captain of the rugby team, you are the ever so graceful MJ Hood am I right?” He, Victor, elegantly spills. After he takes a swig of what looks like vodka.

I smirk and nod, “And I respect any man that can handle straight vodka.” I can hear Kelsie introduce the playlist, the first song is for Alexa a country song called Country Girl I look around to see her and Blake dancing very close to it.

“Well Miss Hood, I must say you are a better athlete than most of the most guys I know,” Victor interrupts my train of thought, I turn back to him smiling wide.

“Is that so?” I ask in a smooth voice coming a little closer to him.

“Oh most definitely,” He whispers to me, pulling me in by my belt loops, “I would love to see how toned your muscle are when they aren’t covered with a football uniform.”  
I giggle stepping back, he looks hurt and confused and about to apologize but I speak before he can, “Well you just might by the end of the party. There are a few other things I need to do though, don’t worry Blonde, I don’t forget hot boys easily.” With a quick lean in to kiss his cheek I fade back into the crowd, but now with his vodka.  
I found some of the other girls and we danced throughout their songs. About a song and a half ago I found Richard again and we started dancing. The song that was playing ends and Kelsie’s voice comes through the loudspeaker again, by this point I am thoroughly drunk and loving it. “Lastly we have our amazing keeper’s shout out, then to finish the list I have a song I found personally fits Miss MJ Hood, but first here is English Love Affair by 5 Seconds of Summer,” Kelsie says sarcastically joyful.

I turn to Richard and hug him. It had to be Richard who picked the song, he probably told her before the party started back at the game. We dance when I feel a set of hands grab my waist and pull me a bit away from Rich. I turn to yell at whoever it is to be greeted with the charming smile of Victor. “Mind if I do the honor of dancing with you for your shout out?” He asks me but shifts gaze between Richard and I checking to see if Rich would flip on him.

I nod and give a little wave to Hemo to leave, he smiles and shakes his head but leans in whispering a, “please be safe, I’ll see you later.” before leaving.

Victor turns out be a good dancer, well grinder because that’s all we did for my song. Too soon it’s over and we break apart. I turn to face him to ask him to come back to mine when Kelsie’s ‘personal pick for me’ comes playing through the stereo. I turn and glare back at her, to find that she is just leaning against the wall behind her personal table smirking, as I recognise the opening riff of Shameless by All Time Low. Everyone who knows the songs turns to look at me, almost like a public shaming, exactly what she was going for.

But two can play this game. Right as the drums kick the first time I jump up on the coffee table and dance, letting the hypnotic words of Alex flow and control my body. As the end of the first verse come I do a front flip off the table, run and jump so I basically pull a hood slip across Kelsie’s table. I do a little table dance right in front of her for the chorus, I can see her fuming as I do it. I end the chorus by turning on the table and jumping off. I continue to dance and do acrobatic tricks throughout the whole song, ending the last chorus by jumping up on the banister leading to the stairs and doing a backflip off landing in a split on the floor.

Victor comes over to me and helps me up. “That was hot. Like a new level of hot,” He breaths in my ear as he holds me up. I giggle in my ear and pull him outside.  
We end up on the pool deck of what appears to be my house making out, Victor’s body blanketing mine. We break apart for air, and he moves straight to my neck. I let out a high pitched whimper at the sensation. “As much as I’m loving this, why don’t we go somewhere no one could just randomly walk in on us?” I ask pulling his hair so he will look at me.

All Victor does is moan and nod, then gets up pulling me with him. I grab his hand and lead him up the balcony entrance to my room. Once we get there I don’t bother closing the glass door, instead I opt for turning to Victor and peeling off his shirt. We get make to making out after he rids me of my jersey and tosses it somewhere. “Jump,” he growled in my ear as his hands go to cup my ass. I do as i’m told and start marking up his neck as he moves us to the bed.

He gently tosses me on the bed, then makes quick work of ridding me of my shoes, socks, pants, and underwear- this is the type of situation I am so thankful I am basically a naked mole rat like my father. As he strips me I notice some small differences in my room, like the books on the bookcase, and the wall color appears to have changed, but at the same time my dad’s band poster is still hanging and so is the thirteen photo set of Hemo and I. I therefore blame it on the dark and drunkenness.

I am brought out of my head when I feel a long wet strip being licked up my folds. I couldn’t contain the moan that leaves my lips. I look down to see a mop of blonde hair between my legs before Victor looks up at me with a smirk. “You like that babe?” He asks as he slips two fingers in me causing me to moan and whimper loudly as he pumps quickly in in out.

“God… Fuck yes. I looove it- please don’t stop,” I beg squeezing my eyes shut as my nails claw at his back.

“Your wish is my command,” Is all that Victor whispers before resuming his assault with his tongue and lips. I’m at a loss for all coherent words, only using moans and profanities to explain how great this feels.

After a little I feel that familiar and joyous knot forming in my stomach. I pull on Victor’s hair to get him to stop. Once he pulls off and out I lean up to kiss him hard, tasting myself on him. “Need you now, condom?” Is all I make out once we pull back from the kiss. Victor nods and reaches down into his pants and grabs the shiny square. He quickly opens it and rolls it on his dick. He pushes me down to hover over me before slipping into me, bottoming out. “Move,” I groan and he obeys, setting a strong, hard, and fast pace. With each thrust he shifts the angle a little till I let out a cry of pleasure, signaling he found my g spot. He continues at that angle but now leaning down and marking my neck. The only sounds I can hear are our moans and the sound of slapping skin.

“Fuck babe, so good, I'm so close,” Victor mumbles against my after a while.

I wrap my legs around his waist causing my walls to tighten around him sending us both a new sense of pleasure. “God damn, yea yeah, I’m too. God Victor you can reach everything in me,” I rush out, not having the breath to say more. He leans down while maintaining the angle with his thrusts to suck on my left nipple while his right hand goes to rub my clit. That was all I needed to send me over the edge. With a cry of his name I come hard, him following a thrust or two later spilling into the condom. Still he doesn’t stop moving milking our orgasms.

Eventually he pulls out, takes off and ties the condom throwing it in the trash can by the bed, weird thought I left that by my desk. Then comes back to the bed, pulls the covers back and without another word he pulls me to be little spoon against his chest, which I learned is not a perfect pack like Blake but instead more pudgy but still fit. I pass out within minutes.

I'm woken up by a harsh light being turned on and Richard's voice calling out, "Hey MJ are you in here?" I poke up from under the covers and look at him, why the hell is he in my room? He gives me a warm smile and takes a step closer, but his smile fades and he freezes as I feel movement behind me.

I turn to see a disheveled Victor popping up from under the covers. "Hey man," he greets a stunned Richard, "you mind giving us a minute?"

The shock fades from Hemo's face and it turns to pure anger. "You didn't." Is all the he hisses out.

It is my turn to be confused, me still being slightly drunk isn't really helping. I furrow my eyebrows while asking, "I didn't what Rich?" I sit up pulling the covers with me.

He shakes his head and grabs a water bottle off my dresser, when did that appear, and throws it at me yelling, "YOU DIDN'T HAVE A FUCKING HOOK UP IN MY GOD DAMN BED AT YOUR FIRST PARTY BACK!"

That's when I look around the room and take in the differences. The covers, the bed, the piano in the corner, and the way all the posters are arranged. Things that drunk me couldn't truly notice in the dark. "Oh shit. Richard I swear I didn't know. I thought-" I rush out but he cuts me off.

"I don't want to hear your lame ass drunk reasons. I don't want to be near you right now," he says solemnly, then turns and leaves.

I quickly jump out of the bed and pull on all of my clothes. "I'm sorry Victor. This was a bad mistake. Not you, you were amazing but I shouldn't of done it. Especially not here. Now I have to go get my best friend back," I quickly explain as I continue to dress. As soon as my pants are back on I rush out the door and down stair, forgetting shoes entirely. I find Richard halfway down the stairs and shout, "RICHARD! Would you please stop and listen to me!?!?" I beg pulling on his arm. He rips his hand from my grasp.

"I don't want to hear your half assed excuses. Admit it MJ you fucked up. Literally." He spews, we are back in the livingroom. The music has stopped and everyone is look at us. I can't care right now. I have to make Hemo forgive me.

"I know I did okay but will you let me explain for like five minutes!" I plead. I can see Blake coming over to us. He lays a gentle hand on his brother's shoulder only for Rich to pull away and glare at Blake.

"Don't you dare try and tell me to calm down," Richard ordered his brother, shoving him back. He turns back to me and glares, "you aren't worth five minutes. I don't want to see you again. Get out of my fuck house you bitch!"

The tears surface my eyes as I listen to him. Richard has never been violent or cruel to me. Every time something went wrong he was there to pick me up and help. Hearing the words fall from his lips made it ten times worse. "Hemo please. Just will you listen to me. I need to explain," I try begging one last time. I watch as Blake leans up to his brother's ear and whispers something I couldn't hear. But it results in Richard grabbing my wrist a bit too hard and leading me out of the party.

We walk in silence to my house. While Sydney is hot the midnight air causes my hair to stand on end and goosebumps to form on my arm. We finally reach my house, which is thankfully empty. Once we are in we head straight to my room. I plop down on the bed while Richard leans against my desk which is against the wall across from my bed.  
Silence hangs over the room like a heavy cloud. "Do you really hate me now?" I whisper out. Afraid that if I'm too loud he will go off on me again.

He sighs and walks over and sits next to me. "No," Rich muses as he gently strokes my cheek with his thumb. I lean into the touch. "But you know why I'm mad? You hooked up with one of my brother's friends in my bed. The bed where we lost our virginity. The bed where I made love to you. And you used it for a meaningless hook up," He finishes pulling back. I nod knowing what he means.

"Rich you have to understand. I thought I was in my room," I tell. He cocks an eyebrow looking unimpressed. "No so we went outside and were at the pool and I thought it was our pool for some reason so I lead him up to what I thought was my balcony. Then the lights were off and I thought the room looked a little different but I saw our photo set and our dads' poster on the wall so I figured I was just too drunk to notice and yeah. But then we fell asleep and you came in and I realised that it wasn't mine but was yours. And I'm so sorry. I know what I did was wrong but it was an accident." I start crying again once I finish. Trying to find air that I need.

Rich grabs me and pulls me close. Cuddling me to his broad chest quitting me as I cry. "I get it. It's okay. I understand. Shhhh we're fine. I still love you, Bat Girl," he mumbles into my hair as I cry. I can't help but laugh at the old nickname, established back when we were lame little kids obsessed with superheroes.

I pull back from his chest and give him a watery smile. “Cuddle?” I ask in a timid voice scared of the rejection that I may receive. All Rich does is nod. I shift over and grab my pj shirt, one of his now that I look at it, and change into it as he just removes our shoes and his shirt. He pulls me back so that as he lays on his back my head is resting on the left side of his chest with our feet and legs intertwined under the covers.

“I still and always will love you like I did that first time you know,” Richard whispers soothingly into my hair as sleep calls for me, “maybe not that intensely but that love will always be there for you. I get that we could never work, really I do, but still I will always love you.” He drops a kiss into my hair as he finishes.

I turn to look him in the eye for a second before I lightly kiss his lips, there was love in the kiss but not the kind we both desired at one point. “I love you too,” I whisper back when we break, “we could never work but I will always be here for you, you know how it goes two out of three ain’t bad.” He never said anything back we both just fell asleep miss what could never be.


	11. 6 Kelsie

 

By the time I wake up the next morning, it’s after noon and I have the slightest headache. It’s not from drinking I know that much. I grab a bottle of pills and take 2 to help. I swing my legs off of the bed and sit there for a bit trying to decide if it’s even worth getting out of bed today. I don’t have work till tomorrow and I just saw my friends last night so no real need for social interaction. My thoughts are interrupted by a very loud noise coming from my stomach.

I rub my face before putting my glasses on before I finally get out of my room. I wander into the kitchen and see Father standing at the breakfast bar looking at a new issue of a music magazine. I’m not sure which one it is since he has it flat on the table and it’s turned to some page with a sound board on it.

“Morning,” I yawn out, opening the refrigerator and grabbing a bottle of water.

“Hey,” Ashton replies not looking up from what he’s reading.

I look through the pantries for something quick to eat and see nothing. I open the freezer door and spot a new tub of Rocky Road ice cream. I snatch it from the icy shelf and grab a spoon before I sit down at the breakfast bar across from my Father. I open it and take a small spoon of it. I haven’t had this stuff since I was probably still in primary school. I go in for another spoonful, when I start to remember what happened last night. My appetite is gone now. I close the ice cream and return it after I throw the spoon in the sink. Ash must have noticed my mood change because he looks up at me after I close the freezer door.

“What’s wrong little rock star?”

“Can I ask you something that I probably shouldn’t but I don’t know who else to ask?”

Ashton closes his magazine and takes me into the living room for us to chat. He sits on the edge of the recliner and I sit on the couch with my hands on my lap.

“What is it Kels? Is MJ giving you trouble?”

“No. Well not like she was. But this involves her. Last night at the party, something happened and I’m not sure exactly what it was, but Richard and MJ got into a huge argument. I have never seen Rich that upset before. He called her a bitch right to her face.”

“Wow,” Ashton began. “That doesn’t sound like Richard at all. He’s usually very level headed. Whatever it was, it must have really hurt him.”

“I think it did too.”

“So, what are you asking?”

I looked at my hands before replying.

“I don’t know. I mean, I want to make sure he’s okay. Like sure we hate the Hoods, but MJ is like his best friend. I know when Blake and I fought, he made sure I was okay. I just don’t know if I should ask and he thinks I’m trying to butt in.”

“You’re his friend. Hell with how much time we’ve spent with the Hemmings while you kids were growing up, they’re practically your siblings. I think as long as your heart is in the right place, he’ll know that.”

I get up and give him the biggest hug I can muster.

“Thanks dad.”

I could feel him smile as he hugged me back.

“”No problem kiddo. Wait,” he said pulling back. “Did I just say ‘kiddo? I’m getting old, oh no!”

I just laugh at him.

“How bout we see if you can beat me in a game of Mario Kart, old man,” I challenged. If there was one thing that could make my dad’s feel young again, it was video games.

We play for a few hours till we hear the front door slam shut and Michael enter in with 2 large pizzas and a case of beer.

“Hey dad, how was work,” I question not taking my eyes off the screen. I was in first place and Ash was right on my heels.

“Same old, same old. Kids came in, bought shitty music, left. No one goes for the classics anymore.” He sounded like he was in the kitchen or the dining room. I couldn’t look, I had just gotten a banana peel and was about to place it. Sadly, I didn’t place it quickly enough before Father hit me with a red shell and finished the race in first.

“I’M CALLING SHENANIGANS,” I yell tossing my controller on the sofa and walking to the dining room to get food. I hear him chuckle as he turns everything off then follows me. We all sit down at the table and grab slices of pizza and my dad’s open a beer while I grab another bottle of water.

“So how was the party last night,” Dad asks after shoving practically the whole slice of pizza in his mouth. I swallow my bite and look over to Ash who as a sympathetic look on his face.

“It was okay,” I say. “Rich got into a fight towards the end of it.”

“Holy fuck! I hope he’s okay,” Michael says looking worried. Ash shoots him a glare for swearing that he just ignores.

“It wasn’t that kind of fight Mikey,” Ashton says. “Him and MJ got into a fight.”

My dad stiffens slightly at the mention of a Hood. I look over to my Father like he’s crazy.

“What? We can’t dance around the fact that the Hoods are friends with the Hemmings. MJ is good friends with Richard and we can’t take that fact away. They got into an argument at the end of the night and if they are real friends, they’ll reconcile.” The end of it it mostly aimed to Michael. He just rolls his eyes.

“I can dance around whatever the hell I want. Yes it’s terrible that Richard got into a fight with someone that’s suppose to be his best friend, but if she fucked him over then good riddance. Besides, what kind of name is MJ anyway? Hood’s lost his goddamn mind.” Michael ends his rant by taking another huge bite of his pizza.

“It’s a nickname,” I say quietly.

“What,” Ash asks.

“MJ. It’s a nickname. Honestly with a name like Madlenka-Jaden Karen Ann-Marie Ho-... Why do you guys look like you’ve seen a ghost?” The pizza has fallen from Michael’s hands and the color has drained from both their faces.

“What’s her name,” Michael asks, setting his hands softly on the table.

“Madlenka-Jaden Karen Ann-Marie Hood. Why?”

“Kels, think about what you’ve just said.” Ashton looks like he’s getting ready to restrain my dad. I just stare at them blankly.

“What? It’s an unusual name. Why wouldn’t I remember that?”

“Kelsie.” Michael starts slowly. “Her middle names. Think about her middle names.”

I sit there thinking about it. Karen. Ann. Marie. The names sound familiar, but I’m not sure why.

“Yeah I still have no clue,” I finally say.

“I bet you his did this just to fuck with us,” Michael says to Ashton.

“Why would he do that? Why would he give those names to his daughter to fuck with us?”

“So when he yells at her, it’s like he’s yelling at us!”

       “Michael, you are being ridiculous.”

“WILL SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE NAMES?!” My dad’s look at me, having forgotten that I was slower than a snail.

Ashton puts his head in his hands and rubs his face before he finally speaks.

“Your grandmothers, Kelsie.”

“What does this have to do with Grandma Ka- OH MY GOD I’M DUMB AS SHIT!”

“That’s what’s wrong with the names.”

“Kels,” Michael looks to me. “What’s his son’s middle names?”

“Hell if I know. I could ask Blake.”

“Do it,” they both say.

I run up to my room and grab my phone. I run back down and dial Blake’s number.

“Henderson’s morgue, you stab em we slab em. This is Eight Ball speaking.”

“Haha funny Blake. Now question. Do you know Marcus’s middle name?”

“Yes,” He says dragging it out. “I know both of them.”

“Both of them? What are they?”

“I’m not telling you.”

“Why not,” I whine.

“Because you don’t need to know.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

Michael finally takes my phone from me.

“Blake, it’s Michael. What is his middle name?”

“I’m sorry sir, but I won’t tell you.”

“Did you just call me sir?”

“Yes.”

“Tell me,” Michael urges.

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

I take my phone back before this cycle can continue any farther.

“Fine. Thanks anyway Blake.”

“No problem,” he chirps back before he hangs up.

We spend the rest of dinner in silence. We were all thinking the same thing, but no one wanted it to be true. I finished my meal and went up to my room to pass the time till I had to sleep.

The next day wasn’t any more exciting than the day before. I had to get up early and go to work, dying and washing and styling people's hair. Working at a salon was great because I could always get my hands on any color I wanted and my haircuts were free. The parts that sucked were I got stares from women twice my age because of my hair and I had to be polite to them.

The day just dragged on and when I finally came home, I was too tired to make myself anything to eat. I immediately went to my room, changed into sweats, and buried myself in my bed until the next morning for school.


	12. 6 MJ's

“Hey honey Luke is downstair… What the hell is happening here?” My dad’s tone shifts from that on an excited puppy to over protective father in half a second. I slowly pull my eyelids apart and look at my dad standing at my door. He was wearing his hair askew, like he just got up or pulled on it from stress, and had on an All Time Low shirt and some running shorts.

I turn my attention to the sleeping Hemmings I’m currently wrapped around and covered in. I turn back to my dad, who was looking at me expectantly, and just shrug not really wanting to explain last night. My dad huffs and picks up the football sitting my dresser and chucks it at Richard who then immediately sits up with a cry of pain. “Why the hell did you hit me? Here I am cuddling you like a good friend and you hit me. It’s only… ten am, too earlier for you to be beating me up,” Richard whines while flopping back onto my bed, arm covering his eyes. My dad then clears his throat causing Rich to sit up and stare at my dad, who just waves with a sarcastic smile on his face. “Uncle Cal, great to see you. I can explain why I’m shirtless and in your daughter’s bed. Umm well after the party we came back here. And your daughter being a needy and lonely person demanded cuddles and I would not be a true friend if I denied her of the simple pleasures. And like I knew it would get really hot, and that isn’t a shirt you want to try and sleep in so I just took it off. And yeah, please don’t throw another football at me,” Hemo rushed looking nervous the whole time, my dad just raised his eyebrows looking severally unimpressed.

Calum then turned to me and smiled. We both busted out laughing, leaving Richard confused and worried. When our laughing fit was done my dad turned back to Rich say, “I figured kido, I just wanted to freak you out. Come on Luke and the others are waiting downstairs with food.” He then turns and leaves. I get up and pop my back as I stretch upward, only for it to be followed by my father yelling, “God damn it MJ no more back cracking!”

I sigh out of contentment and annoyance, then make grabby hands at Rich causing him to giggle and take my hand standing up. “Come on, your dad makes the best pancakes,” I say as he pulls on his shirt. Once we reach the stairwell we get punched with noise; screaming, laughing, joking, it all. We get down to the kitchen to see the everyone in in the Hood, Hemmings, and Barakat families. “Who the hell died and brought all of you guys back together?” Are the first words that come out of my mouth stopping all other conversations.

Alex, just laughs and shakes his head. “You sure she’s never met Mikey?” He asks my dad who was sitting right across from him. It is meant as a joke but all of us stiffen. Luke tries to kick him from under the table, I can see it from where I’m standing in the kitchen next to Rich, but Blake’s legs- who is on his right- get in the way causing Blake to yell. The setup of the table goes Luke at the head back facing me, Blake on his right, Alexa, Alex, Jack, and empty seat, Marcus, another empty seat, Molly, my dad, Allison, and finally Skylar on Luke’s left. The setup looked like a Christmas family photo from a punk rock movie.

“I am positive she hasn’t, unless Luke introduced them,” My dad snaps me out of my little dream Christmas. I look around the room, the tension and strain making everyone uncomfortable.

Good thing that Mama Hemmings is always there to save the awkward. “My lord MJ, you really have become a woman! God I’ve always loved your hair, is that purple? What colour are you going to do next?” Skylar gushes as she rushes over to give me a hug. I melt into the embrace, as I see Richard sneak around to take the seat next to Jack.

I return the hug, pulling back after a few seconds and start walking to the table, taking a seat next to my dad. “I don’t really know what colour I want to go next. Maybe ombre blue or purple. Oh I saw this cool thing on Tumblr called Galaxy, that seemed pretty fun, but a lot of time,” I reply getting some pancakes and slapping them on my plate, then fight Richard over the last slice of bacon. Luke makes a hurt kind of noise in the back of the throat but tries to cover it with a cough. That one action sets the mode for the rest of the meal.

About an hour later we had all finished the most awkward breakfast of our lives and the adults went over to the living room while we all went down to the basement/game room/music room/movie room. “Okay what doesn’t this place have?” Blake yells from the cinema area while I kick Alexa’s arse at Fifa 16.

Marc and I start laughing. I can see out of the corner of my eye Marc go pat him on the shoulder and sigh, “It’s easier to ask the opposite my dear friend.”

“Let me tell you, I have not missed your cockiness,” Blake rebuttals as he pushes past him and squeezes in next to Alexa on the fifteen person couch. I score the final winning goal in the game, ending it 5-3. The loss causes Alexa to throw her controller and Blake and Rich to laugh. I turn around to the pool table to see Molly creaming Allison.

“This is nice,” I just kinda blurt out. Rich hums from my side and turns to me smiling. “Hey do you guys remember that weird game we used to play with our dad’s bands?” I ask out of nowhere, think of when we would all crowd around the TV at Luke’s old office with nothing better to do.

“Do you mean the one where we would guess the concert?” Allison pipes in accepting defeat and walking over to the couch, laying down on the extended part.

I nod and crack a smile at the silly game. Blake bursts out laughing and shakes his head. “God we haven’t played that since you two left for England,” He tells looking between Marc and I.

“Why not play again?” I ask, grabbing the XBox control and going back to the main menu then selecting the YouTube app. Everyone gives some kind of confirmation. “Awesome everyone close your eyes! I pick first, my idea!” I shout in glee, happy to get back to old habits. I quickly type in 5 Seconds of Summer Live into the search bar and hit enter. I click on the first video, it has the header of 5SOS Manchester 25.2.14 - Ashton broke his drums. I wait for the title to fade and then tell the others to open their eyes. “Begin children,” I say in an evil voice, causing everyone to look over at me.

       “Never do that again,” Molly asks as she shakes her head, everyone nods in agreement causing me to huff and pout a little. Richard just slings his arm around me and pulls me close as we turn our attention back to the screen.

       “Okay so it’s 2013? or early 2014?” Blake starts the game. squinting trying to find clues in the way the boys moved and talk to each other.

       “No this is defiantly 2014, look at Ashton’s drum head,” Alexa adds looking over everything in the video for clues.

       “Correct,” I tell them leaning in to Richard trying to get comfy. I watch as Michael goes on about how thankful he is for everyone that came off. Then he flips off the camera, Ashton then picks up a hat that flew up on stage, interrupting Luke.

“Oooh, so if they aren’t in Aus, then they have to be in the UK!” Richard screams in my ear, picking up on what Ashton had said.

“you got it.”

“Let me guess a part of England?” Molly perks up trying to see if she got it right. I give a simple nod, eyes not leaving the screen.

“Holy f, you can totally see when Ash smashed the drum head up, he just freezes! And the look on his face makes it perfect! Dad told me about this show it was in Manchester in like February of 2014,” Blake goes on, laugh as he tries to get through it all. I pause the video showing the title and high five Blake and pass him the controller. “Alright close your eyes,” Blake commands.

We all shut our eyes and wait for Blake’s cue to open. In seconds a wave of screaming hits me and I open my eyes to find my dad walking up to the mic, bass slung to the side, and yelling, “Are we doing this Birmingham?!”

“Alright Luke’s hair cut with Ashton’s drums I say late fall of 2013. Obviously in Birmingham England,” I announce still staring at the screen, I understand then that ‘doing this’ is Michael, Calum, and Luke all pulling their pants down to their knees and continuing to talk as if nothing happened. I can’t help the laugh that leaves my lips, seeing my dad strip on stage, the others follow after me till we are all laughing.

Before Blake and tell me I’m right or wrong Cal and Luke come down the stair as my dad shouts, “What on Earth are you guy laughing-” He stops when he sees the screen. The tension is visible, the anger is too. “Shut it off,” He commands through gritted teeth. I don’t think I’ve ever seen my brother hit a tv button so fast as he did then to turn the screen black.

Luke walks closer to us trying to ease the situation we had just put ourselves in. “Umm we came down to tell everyone it’s time to go. Alexa, Alex and Jack are waiting in the car go now,” He smooths over, Alexa leans up to peck Blake quickly and waves to the rest of us before sprinting up the steps. “Kids come on your mom is waiting upstairs, also no dinner tomorrow, breakfast today was it instead. Say your goodbyes quick,” Luke informs us all. Blake, Molly, and Allison all wave to Marcus and I while Hemo gives me a tight squeeze and a kiss to the temple before running after their father, who had already gone up stairs.

Marc and I make our move to get up and go when my father barks, “Not so fast you two. Sit your asses down.” We listen shifting back to the original spots on the couch that we were just in, only this time we sit up proper and don’t lounge out. “What the hell were you guys watching?” He asks sharply making me cringe a little.

“You, young you,” I say in a soft voice trying not to anger him further.

“Why?”

“It’s a game we play,” Marc jumps in, the word choice causes my father to raise an eyebrow as a way to tell him ‘choose your next words carefully’. “We started playing it back with the Hemmings when we still lived here. Before the VMAs came on that year they were recapping some of the old performances and old videos, since it was a throwback show. Ashton and Luke were up for something so they started showing some of you guys’ old concerts. We, the Hemmings and us, then turned it into this sort of guessing game. You know, try and guess the show and the year. One person would select a YouTube video and the rest would shut our eyes. It was a cool way of see what young you was like,” Marcus explains slowly and softly, like one would talk to a wild animal or a pissed of Calum Hood.

My dad looks unimpressed and just nods before walk back upstairs to do who knows what. I sigh deeply letting out the air I had been holding since Marc had started, slumping back into the couch. Marc just shakes his head, mumbles something about going out and leave through the basement doors that lead outside, right by the garage.

I run upstairs and just jump on my bed trying to clear my head. That’s when I hear a small laugh. I quickly sit up, grabbing the knife I keep under my pillow as I push off the bed. I whip to around to my balcony door to see Victor standing there with hands up. “Woah, no need to kill me!” He yells when he sees the knife.

I couldn't help but laugh a little as I return the knife to its spot under my pillow before swinging my legs over the bed and heading to Victor. "Sorry, be the child of two famous people and go to a slightly violent boarding school and you get slightly paranoid," I giggle out as I get to him.

I see the tension roll of him as I talk and smile. His charming smile returns as he begins to scratch his neck. "Yeah I just realised how weird this must look. I got the address from Blake I just wanted to make sure we were cool about last night?" Victor says in a calm voice laughing a little.

My smile starts to fade as I look at him confused. "What do you mean cool about last night?" I ask trying to figure out what he was going on about. I remember we slept together but other than that there's nothing we did together, and there is nothing to sort out with sleeping together.

"We're you so smashed that you don't remember? Well to remind you we had sex," he states slowly as if talking to a child.

I laugh and shake my head, causing Victor to look at me confused. "I remember we did that. But so what? What's there to check on?" I ask giggling still.

"Umm I was wondering where it puts us? Like you so cool and I want to you ask you on a date and stuff," He replies while scratching his neck looking at the ground. The question took me by surprise and his awkwardness more so.

"No." I say back sternly. His head snaps back up at my answer.

"No?" He repeats but it's more of a question. I simply nod not showing emotion. "Why not?" Victor asks sounding confused and annoyed.

"I don't really do the whole dating thing. Special not with a hook up." I know it sounds harsh but after the sex crazed experience at Bromsgrove I don't even think I am able to have a relationship that doesn't revolve around sex.

Victor cocks an eyebrow at me anger and annoyance all over his face. "You know I have a cousin that goes to Bromsgrove. Called her up this morning to ask about you," he starts talking his expression going cold, I tense internally but still show a neutral expression. "He told be a little. How good at footie you are and that you love to party but he wouldn't say anymore," he finished. I relax at that, knowing all that I didn't get out.

"What's your point?" I ask coldly.

"I could convince him to tell more."

I walk towards him, Victor backs up with each of my steps till he's against the balcony rail and I'm right in his face. "I would strongly advise against that. Because whatever I did is my business, so I suggest you leave me the hell alone, you were a hookup. Get over yourself," I sneer looking him in the eyes the whole time.

"Whatever prep girl. Just remember your daddy's money can't protect you here," he replies then turns and leaves.

Yeah not much different from boarding school, threats that could end every famous person’s life through their kids. I step back and go back to my bed fishing around till I find my phone. Richard must have plugged it in for me last night. I unravel my headphones plugging them in. I scroll through my music till I find my Chill Out Girlie playlist that my dad and Richard worked together to make and load onto my phone. I hit shuffle and close my eyes till I'm carry off to the land of dreamless sleep.

"Hey you gotta get up now sis," I hear through the water of sleep as Marcus nudges me awake. I just hum in reply not showing another sign of being awake. "Legit you do, we have that fancy party to go to for dad in an hour. You have to get ready," he adds to get me.

"Fuck," I mumble dragging out the 'u'. I turn over and search for my phone, I check the time and find out that Marc isn't lying and it is indeed 5 pm. I pause the music then shift off the bed and turn to my brother. Marcus already has his dress pants and shoes on, with a towel around his shoulders. "Alright quick shower then hair then make up. Which dress do I have to wear?" I ask my brother.

"Dad said something about a Harry Potter dress and my periwinkle tie. That mean something to you?" Marcus both answers and asks.

"Yeah I got this periwinkle dress that kinda looks like Hermione's from Harry Potter. Only the top is tighter and strapless. Also there are a lot of patterns in the top fabric," I say walking to my bathroom. I wave as I close the door and watch Marcus go into his. I quickly wash my body and hair, then shave and wash my face with my acne wash.

I step out and go back to my room and sit at my vanity. I comb my hair and part it to the right side. I pull a few curls to the front and pull the rest into a tight high bun in the back. I grab my cover up and glaze over my face and apply a layer of white eyeshadow over the whole eyelid then blend purple with it around the edges. A make a wing on both eyes with black eyeliner and add the final touch of bright red lip stain. I cover my hair in a thick mist of hairspray, leaving the vanity I walk into my closet and walk to the very back to wear the fancy dress all hang. I pick out the dress dad told me to wear and pull it on. I turn around to peer into the mirror to see the back and start tightening the satin strings that make up the corset open back and make sure that the dress won't fall. I go to my shoes and pull on my black heels.

I re-enter my main room and put on my small black diamond necklace and stud earrings before changing my lip ring to a simple silver hoop. I grab my phone and slip it into my bra and walk out my room to find my brother standing at the stair railing looking over the house. I look over him. His hair is combs and greased parted to the left. To match his black suit pants he wears a black suit jacket, a white button up, and finally a matching periwinkle tie and vest.

"Ready to go?" I ask as I get closer to him. Marcus turns to me and hold out his arm with a faint smile on his lips. I take it and we descend the stairs.

I find my father staring at a family photo with the Hemmings from a few summers back. He's matching my brother in every way but he has a dark blue vest and tie on. Marcus clears his throat and my dad silently turns to look at us. His face is cold as he looks us over, nodding Calum walks by us and leads us to the car waiting out front. I frown at my brother but he just nods and follows dad dragging me with them.

The ride the venue is silent. Only soft music filling the dead air. We get there and dad taps on the driver's shoulder and whispers something in his ear. The driver nods then leads the car to block the doors. Dad turns back to us and sighs. "I am anger. Trust me. I told you to leave my musical past alone. I want you to know about me now. I get that me being a musician was a part of me for a long amount of time. But I'm not that any more. I'm a football coach and an ex-football player. I will let you follow whatever path you want, but leave mine alone," he says monotone.

I couldn't stop what came out of my mouth, "what happened between you and Michael all those years ago to hate each other so much? We have the right to know. The Clifford-Iwrins hate us. And we don't even know why!"

My dad stares at me and I feel I've gone too far. Then he starts nodding with pursed lips. "You're right. But not now. Not tonight. Soon. Tonight we fake that our lives our great and my childhood best friend doesn't hate us. That your mother is a lie bitch and that everything is great," he finished with a wide smile, that I have come to learn is fake, and leaves the car. I nod to my brother before following him.

We are hit with a wave of bright lights the second we are out of the car. I grip Marcus' arm that much tighter. I try to ignore all the noise. Before the words form proper sentence in my head I feel my dad come and viper grip my left hand. I start to put the words together, they are all questions about my mom, the Liverpool goalie, or any private part of our lives. We smile but walk a little quicker into the venue.

Once in and at our table I down a glass of red wine along with my brother as my dad downs gin. I'm then introduced to the head coach, and some of the team members. I smile and nod and laugh at all the right times. As more drinks are served I secretly drink another 2 glasses. The rest of the night pass as a blur till I'm lying in my bed again at home, contacts out and dress and heels off. I lay there staring at the ceiling trying to understand what really happened.

My father, Calum Hood, is finally going to explain a story that he ignores and causes Luke to tense up. I am excited and nervous. It will change how I think of my father and Uncle Luke. But I need it.

I wake up the next morning not realising I fell asleep. The day is spent in my room. On YouTube and Skype with Richard. At one point in the call he says that we could just walk to the others house. But something's don't change and we are really lazy. After the call I change into sweats and a sports bra only to lay back in my bed and play Sims 6. Before I realise how much time I've wasted playing my dad is knocking on my door reminding me I got school in the morning. I turn to the clock and see it's almost one am. I look to my dad to ask him why he's up so late only to find him gone. I save and close the game and turn off my laptop. I plug up my phone and roll over to sleep.


End file.
